The Electronic Eye
by LostInTheDreams
Summary: If Artemis thought getting someone arrested was where it ended, he was sadly mistaken. Holly was 'not there' so is not being targeted. Fairy technology is being used against him and it won't be long until its released to the world. Or used for revenge.
1. A Normal Life

This is my first Artemis Fowl story. I do not own the characters.  
Please tell me what you think of it. It looks to turn into a long story, so be prepared.  
And thanks to my amazing beta reader Lexical Item.

This is based after book 6, the Time Paradox, just so you know. Not book 7.

^_^ Hope you enjoy it

* * *

_**Chapter 1: A Normal Life**_

It wasn't that Artemis Fowl was bored. How could he be? He had two younger brothers running around him now, causing all sorts of trouble. He'd come home to find that the twins had gotten their hands on finger-paints and made his room a multicoloured maelstrom of drunken rainbows. His computers had suffered the most, since the screens looked like sheets of paper to the young twins. It seemed no lock could keep them out any longer.

His mother and father had also devoted their weekends to touring the world with him and the twins. It didn't sound like a bad idea when Artemis was first presented with it, but his father chose rural areas that generally repelled tourism. One place hadn't even had bathrooms, shacks being the only thing present in the out of the way Indian town. He'd gotten himself so dirty sleeping in 'nature' that he was sure the orange soil was still caked in the pours of his skin.

Holly would also call him up every few months or so with updates on the fairy world. She was back in her old position thanks to Trouble Kelp taking over the LEP. Her and Mulch had parted ways, but he was still running the P.I. business that the two of them had started so Artemis would get the odd word every now and then about the dwarf. It seemed they hadn't killed one other yet, and were close enough so be sharing stories at the least so Artemis assumed they were getting along well enough.

So no, Artemis Fowl wasn't in need of entertainment. He currently had enough 'entertainment' in his life. It simply felt as though something was missing. Ever since his time travelling adventure, something had felt off. He wasn't sure what is was, so he wasn't sure how to correct it. Pouring over literature or the adventures of life did nothing to fill the hollowness he felt. It could be overshadowed sometimes, but it would always come back.

"Butler, what do you think is wrong with me?" Artemis walked with his more or less retired body guard down one of the desolate parks near town. He would have liked to travel to Hyde Park in the famous city of London or fly to Park Güell, had his father permitted it, but they were supposed to be getting ready for another family outing. Artemis hadn't had the heart to find out where. Either way, he knew it was going to be somewhere less than appealing.

"Artemis," Butler sighed, "for a sixteen year old, you really do over analyse. Have fun. It's not going to kill you."

Artemis had only turned sixteen a week ago and he was glad that his age was finally catching up to him. "This so called over-analysing is one of the things that separates me from irredeemable mediocrity. Intelligence should not be belittled."

"I'm not belittling intelligence, but having the wisdom to know when to apply it…" Butler paused as he stared down at the teenager, younger in body but not in mind. The only thing lacking was the boy's involvement in the real, _normal_ world. Even his involvement in the fairy world was sketchy. "With you, I think it's a problem."

"How so?" Artemis looked around, taking in the sight of the drying trees, most of which were clinging to their dead leaves like hungry beggars. "It's never hindered me in the past. In fact, I believe my intelligence has saved lives on several occasions."

"That is not the problem. Your intellect makes it difficult for you to interact with other people, Artemis. You don't think much of others and you rarely bother to hide it." Butler winked. "You don't do it with me or Holly, but most of society doesn't like being talked down too by a minor."

"My age should hardly be a factor in this conversation. If my mental capacity is sufficient, I hardly see a problem with it."

"That's not the only point I'm trying to make, Artemis." Butler put one of his large hands on the boy's shoulder. "You care about your friends and your family, I know that. But when have you ever _loved_ someone who wasn't family?"

"What?" Artemis pulled away. The look he shot Butler was filled with scepticism and more than a little bemusement. "What are you talking about? Why would I need to be in love with somebody?"

"It's not that I think it's a bad thing." Butler smiled. "In fact, most girls would think it was cute. My problem is that you don't even try. You'll talk to people, get to know them and maybe like them, but that's as far as you go."

"So you think I require a girlfriend?" Artemis raised an eyebrow to show how illogical that sounded. "There are millions of single people out in the world who get along fine in their lives. A girlfriend would do nothing for me." Though he had thought about Minerva once or twice. They'd met a few times since he'd returned. The converstions had been nice and the games challanging. If he was to have a girlfriend in the future, she didn't seem like a bad choice.

"It's not that it's necessary to have someone special in your life, I just think that it would help you. You never show any interest in more than understanding people. There could be a lot of reasons that you allow yourself to be isolated. With what happened to you're parents before Holly came along, it makes me think you're doing it because afraid of getting hurt."

Artemis's echoing footsteps came to an abrupt end halt in the autumn sunshine. Butler walked a foot more before stopping as well.

"Is that what it is?" Artemis put a hand to his forehead and thought about it. Was he afraid of getting hurt if he ever became close with somebody? He looked back on his life. Butler had gotten shot because of him. He'd seen Holly die right before his eyes. His father had been kidnapped for years and his mother had been sick twice, once surely because of his own foolish actions. The fairies had mind wiped him once because of the danger he posed to the People. Maybe he was a danger to everyone.

"Artemis." Butler's hand was back on his shoulder. "I would be surprised if you didn't feel that way, at least a little. You've been through a lot. Take your time. Get used to life again. Everything will fall into place in its own time."

"I do believe it will. I suppose I will simply have to be patient until that time comes." Artemis took in the dying landscape around him. Winter was coming on sooner then is should have. The chill came on drastically and it was only September.

The walk back to Fowl manner took fifteen minutes and Artemis could see how cold Butler was, even in his heavy coat. The teen wasn't doing much better. Despite his expensive jacket, his lean body did little to conserve heat.

As they came upon the road to his home, Artemis felt a sudden pain in his chest. He stopped walking as Butler continued, not having noticed him stop. Artemis couldn't fault him for it. Butler was really getting on in years now. After the intense healing he'd gone though, his body must have been pushing sixty. After more than a foot separated them, Butler took notice but continued on, concluding it was that he give Artemis some time alone to think to himself after what they'd been talking about. It usually took Artemis some time to comprehend things when his own emotions were involved.

The pain wasn't that terrible. Artemis' brain stopped processing as he stood still. He was trying and failing to assess what it was that was causing the source of the dull throbbing. He titled his head slightly to look downwards, feeling the world sway as he did. There was a large red patch staining his dark coat. His eyes saw the hole in the jacket, on his left side somewhere near his heart, but his brain did nothing with the information.

He tried to call out to Butler, to get the situation explained to him, but his words wouldn't leave his throat, Artemis only managed to exhale slightly. It was at that time that he noticed how shallow and uneven his breathing had become.

Butler finally turned, a good fifteen feet ahead of where Artemis was still frozen. He knew he wouldn't be able to move. If he tired he'd fall over and the rock pathway didn't look too inviting.

"Artemis, what's the matter?"

Artemis's brain started working slowly. He'd been shot. The bullet had to have come from behind him or Butler would have seen it. Wherever the shooter was, they must have been currently hiding. As old as his body was, Butler had good eyes. Artemis knew is dark coat blending in with what must be his blood obscured his dire situation.

That left one vital fact running circles in Artemis's head. If he was shot, there was a high chance that Butler would try to intervene. It would only get the retired bodyguard killed, and Artemis could tell there wasn't much hope for himself, considering the location of the wound.

So the teen tried his best to turn around, putting one foot to the side and feeling his body tremble like a leaf on the wind. He couldn't let Butler get shot again because of him.

So the Irish youth did the only thing he could think of. He felt a surge of adrenaline as his body reacted to the pain and initiated the fight or flight response. Using the sudden burst of activity in his sympathetic nervous system, he ran off in the opposite direction. He wasn't sure how his feet were moving beneath him, but he desperately hoped that they would continue to do so until he'd separated himself from Butler enough so that his friend wouldn't be a target.

His sprint didn't last long and Artemis let himself fall to his knees. His breaths were coming in short and fast, constricting his chest as if someone were stabbing him with each inhalation.

_Must have punctured my lung, _Artemis found himself thinking. His shook himself and smiled, noticing that he wasn't even thinking in complete sentences. He pressed a hand to the bullet hole, but it did nothing to stop the pain. The bullet must have gone clean through his chest, meaning that his lung had been ruptured not once, but twice.

Artemis had never been shot before. As frightening as the experience was, he was strangely serene at that moment.

Butler came up behind him, panting lightly from the Kevlar constricting his lungs.

"Artemis, I'm not as young as I used to be." Butler took in a steading breath and was quickly himself again. He'd been training to improve his lung functions for the lesser part of a year and had been seeing good results.

The bodyguard's eyes widened when Artemis half turned to him, unable to control his frantic inhalations as his punctured lung refused to inflate and recivereceive the oxygen.

"What happened?"

The shooter had his chance to finish him off and hadn't. That meant that they weren't out to kill him just yet, though Artemis was sure he was carrying around a mortal wound, or they hadn't planned on getting Butler as well. Either way, Artemis had done what he could. Whatever happened next was out of his control.

"Artemis." Butler put a hand on his shoulder to get a better look at the teen. Artemis heard his friend gasp in surprise.

"Artemis!" Butler shook him and, in his kneeling position, all Artemis could do was sway in the larger man's hands. Butler could clearly see what had happened but he couldn't understand how. They were outside the manor gates and the perimeter cameras weren't hidden. No professional would have risked themselves under the watchful eye of the lenses. To top it off, Butler had his Sig Sauer in his pocket. He'd take care of Artemis first but not many people knew that.

Butler placed his hands gently around Artemis so that the teen wouldn't be in any avoidable pain. Artemis tired to protest, mentally chiding the man for doing something he shouldn't be doing. Though he hadn't grown much in girth, Artemis knew he was a few inches taller. Butler had only started coming back into his old wellbeing in recent months.

Butler was able to lift him and Artemis' unheard protests were brought to an end by an unintentional rough jostling as Butler stood up. The pain that had been numbed was taking over his body by the milliseconds and Artemis had to clench his teeth to keep in any noise of the torture inside. He wasn't good with pain.

"Hold on Artemis! We'll get you to a hospital!" Butler suppressed the desire to run so as to avoid jolting his charge. He moved at brisk, albeit steady pace. Artemis all but stopped listening to the world around him. He could feel his brain trying to force him into unconsciousness. Artemis fought as hard as he could against it. As terrible as the pain may be, he didn't want to die. Not without knowing the reason.

The moments came in flashes. He saw when Butler brought him to the house, kicking in the door. It was an insurmountable feet for most people, Butler didn't even grunt. The Fowl Manor was build for security. Butler didn't seem to care about that though, and the door was already down and out of his thoughts.

Then Artemis remembered catching a glance of his mother's face as he was placed on the velvet couch in the living room. He was faintly revolted at the thought of staining it with blood, but there was nothing he could do to avoid it. His mother's words never registered.

The sound of the phone being slammed down was next. Artemis smiled again. It wasn't so much that the situation was funny, as he was coming to realize how bleak his state of affairs really was, but it made him giddy none the less. Must have been the blood loss. Artemis knew why the phone had been slammed. He was scarcely holding on to consciousness and the Fowl estate was far enough away from town that it would take ages for an ambulance to arrive.

The teen felt himself being picked up again. Butler's harsh breathing was back in his face and he couldn't help a whimper of pain that escaped him. Artemis wanted to stay on the couch.

"I'll take him there. Hurry and get him in the car."

It was his father's voice. His mother's followed and there was a brief argument he couldn't make out. He wasn't sure if he came to the conclusion or if he was somehow taking in their words without hearing them. Someone would have to stay with Beckett and Myles.

Though he couldn't hear her, Artemis could make out his mother's shape next to him. Butler had picked him up, keeping the bullet wound close to him, so that Artemis was able to blindly reach out his other hand towards his mother without hurting himself further. He felt his mother's fingers wrap around his. They were so warm.

"Arty." He heard her crying. He tried to squeeze her hand back. He wasn't sure if he achieved the result he wanted or not. Butler was stuck between pulling him away from his mother and getting him to the car.

This was the first time that Artemis was the one who was suffering. He was used to consoling the people around him, guiltly aware that most of them were hurt or in trouble because of him. His luck must have finally run out and no one was left to stand in death's door for him any longer, even with the good he was trying to accomplish now.

Even the devil's luck runs out.

"Don't – Worry." Artemis's words were so quiet that he wasn't sure they reached her. His sentiments made it across though, and she tightened her hold on him before releasing his hand.

"I'll be there as soon as I can."

Then Artemis felt himself being carried off again and the world passed in flashes of black and white. Butler's heavy breathing was the only thing that he could identify with certainty. As much as he was trying to fight it, he felt his eyes start to close.

"Don't worry Artemis, I won't let you die."

Those were the last words he heard before the flight and sounds of the world disappeared.

_The Lower Elements:_

The day was slow for Holly Short. She and Mulch were currently sitting near the power strip and siphoning off some energy to power a small computer console. Holly didn't ask where Mulch had gotten it. The technology it ran on was old and she could swear there were mud men markings on it.

Foaly had hooked the dwarf up with a net base so that he could help the client he was currently working with. Holly had offer her assistance since it beat chasing around a rouge goblin who was on the wanted list for running up a tab at most of the local bars before vanishing.

Mulch's clientele wasn't much of a step up, but Holly saw the opportunity to go top side for this one if she could find proof and present it to Trouble. Mulch's boy was a pixy and he swore that one of the mud men took a photo of his mother that he had dropped while in the bustling city of Hollywood. Holly was checking to make sure that the photo wasn't linked to anything on the mud men net. Foaly wasn't technically allowed to help her yet, since it wasn't her case, so this was the best that she could do. The photo wasn't much of a threat. There were mud men dhumans doctoring those types of photos all over the upper world. The problem was the photo material used to make the print out was years ahead of the surface world. Someone would notice that this little peice of psycho-babble was the real deal.

Her phone buzzed as Mulch went off topic and started searching into the latest human products.

"Now why would someone want to buy perfume for a professional athlete? They probably smell terrible with that mud men stink and all."

"Not now." Holly held up the phone but the call was cut off after the first ring. "It looks like Artemis wants something." She raised her eyebrows and smiled at Mulch, not minding the other's company for once. With nothing to do at the LEP and the P.I. business looking to be slow, Holly allowed herself a smile. The message icon near Artemis' name also came up red. Danger. "He never calls me on the emergency line unless it's important."

Mulch grinned back, turning off the computer. "Sounds like fun."

_St. Brendan's Hospital, Dublin Ireland:_

Butler was vividly aware of two things. One, Artemis was hurt. He was hurt bad. The bullet had nicked the artery leading away from his heart. The doctors had sown him up, but for some unknown reason the blood transplant he was given was playing havoc on Artemis' system. It was as if the teen's body wasn't accepting his own blood type. There were enough machines hooked up to him at the moment that Butler couldn't understand why they weren't able to help him. Artemis wasn't even breathing on his own anymore. He was hooked up t a machine for that.

The second thing that Butler was aware of was that Artemis' current condition was his fault. Even though he was no longer his bodyguard, since Artemis didn't need one having metaphorically turned over a new leaf, Artemis was one of his dearest friends and Butler hadn't done his best to make sure his principle was protected. If he would have acted quicker, things might be different.

Butler had left his side only once, to make a call to Holly. He knew the chances of her making it to Ireland in time to save Artemis were slim, but he had to try. Holly hadn't answer but Butler kept the phone on him in any case. Holly had pulled off a healing when he had been shot _and clinically dead_, so why not Artemis?

"Arty. Sweetie." Angeline brushed her son's hair out of his face. Her fingers trembled as they moved. She glanced back at Butler with a pleading look. Angeline knew about the fairies. Her smile trembled on her lips when Butler shook his head. Though he wasn't going to give up hope, Artemis's future looked bleak.

Artemis Fowl the first was currently out of the room, making as many phone calls as he could in search of a doctor that would be able to help them. Butler knew well that there no one would dare touch the boy. Artemis's condition was too unstable and it wasn't as if they could get his body to accept the blood. Holly was his only hope.

The phone at Butler's side rang, or more accurately, in his palm. The ring was too small for even his pinky but it still worked as long as the sensor was in contact with his finger

He immediately walked out the door until he was far enough away away to use it and without effecting the medical equipment. He wasn't sure how the transmitter worked and Artemis was in no condition to explain it to him.

"Holly?"

"Butler?" Holly's confused voice echoed over the line with a distinct hiss of static. Though Holly's and Artemis's personal phone connection to one another was handy, it was downright impossible to hear the line clearly at any given time. The call would go through, but it took a few seconds for the connection to clear.

"Holly, I need you. Now."

The urgency in the other's voice broke through any small talk Holly may have planed on having. It had been ages since she's heard from Butler and it seemed like she wouldn't be getting the any time to talk with him. As curious as she was at how Juliet was getting on wihtwith her life, it would have to wait.

"Where?" Holly didn't hesitate. If Butler said he needed her, he needed her.

"St. Brendan's."

Holly paused long enough to set up a link with Foaly. She stopped when she realized where he wanted her to go.

"What happened?"

"I don't know. Artemis needs you. The doctors don't know what's wrong and they've said he only has around a day left."

Holly almost dropped the communitcator. "Well that's not much of an explanation. I-" Holly didn't think she'd be able to get there in by that deadline. With all the trouble she'd gotten into over the years with Artemis, there was no way she'd be allowed a sanction to go up there to help him. On top of which, though a lot of fairies owed him their lives, he wasn't very popular in Haven. Saving a mud boy was hardly going win her those clearances. More like a stay in the mental hospital. "I'll try."

"That's all I can ask. And Holly?"

Holly finished setting up the link with Foaly on her phone as the centaur's face took over the screen. He stared at Holly curiously as she continued her converstaion. She'd expalinexplain it to him after she hung up. Foaly was her only opertunity to get to the surface quickly.

"Yeah?"

"Thank you, and please hurry."

Holly didn't need to be told that. Though Artemis was annoying at times, he'd saved her life on numerous occasions. She'd repaid him in full, but saving someone's life bound you to them in ways that Holly still didn't fully understand. Hell would have to rise up and stop her from helping Artemis now.

"Will do."


	2. Surveillance

Thank you Elllz, mischievous101, and AkumuOokami! Yay, my frist Artemis reviewers!

I WILL NOT stop the story. I HATE when people do that, so don't worry about it :)  
And sorry about the cliffhanger. Habit. -_0 might see a few more of those

The next chapter has any explanations, so stick with it and thanks for reading and reviewing

* * *

_**Chapter 2: Surveillance**_

Holly was pushing her luck but she didn't care. As she wasn't currently working under Section 8's orders, she wasn't allowed clearance. She could try going about things through the proper legal channels and considering how popular she was at the moment it would take maybe a day or two, but no faster than that. Mulch's way was less legal but significantly faster.

"You know, Holly, it isn't good for a Captain to be breaking the law." Mulch dodged his way into a narrow alley that seemed as if it wouldn't be wide enough for the dwarf's midriff. There was a tunnel that he claimed to have made years ago. According to Mulch, Foaly had yet to discover it and he only used it in emergencies. This was definitely an emergency.

The back alleys weren't somewhere Holly would have liked to be, but she wasn't going to wait for the higher-ups to notice what she was doing and wrap her in red tape. Even getting her contacts to join the cause would be difficult. There just wasn't time.

"Complain to me about the logistics of an officer using criminal means when I have time to care." Holly followed behind him. Generally this was not the ideal place she wanted to be with the dwarf, but he knew the backstreets better than she did.

"All right then, Captain." Mulch saluted her with a mocking wink. Holly pushed him forward into the wall ahead of them, although she didn't have the weight to actually hurt him. Mulch shrugged and continued through a pathway that was more pipeline than walkway.

There was a metal grate nailed into the wall behind an old industrial building. Mulch glanced around before prying the sheet away and revealing the tunnel.

"It leads to a magma shoot. It's been inactive for decades. You can use the wings to get to the surface."

"And what will you be doing?" Holly gave Mulch an irritated look.

"Doing things the old fashion way. Unlike you fairies it's simple for a dwarf to get to the surface. Not that we would want to - the sun and all."

Holly nodded before crawling into the hole. The earth was tightly packed and she was certain it wouldn't collapse on top of her.

"Meet me there. I don't have time to wait for you."

Mulch nodded before following her into the tunnel. Foaly would probably detect them now that Mulch wasn't wearing anything to hide from the centaur's supposedly unbeatable technology. The ex-criminal knew he was giving one of his best escape routes away, but hey, it was all in the name of a good cause.

Mulch waited for Holly to get going before digging off in another direction. He knew there was a crevice off to the right, where the rock had previously made tunnelling upward impossible. But now it had crumbled. The space between was tight, but only for a moment. With any luck he'd beat Holly to the surface. With the way she flew those wings though, he doubted it.

Holly crept through the dried out soil, losing her grip every few feet. The tunnel had been made long ago and this far below the surface it was as dried out as Mulch would be if she threw him in the desert. The idea seemed tempting. It took her almost an hour to clear the passage.

"Holly."

Foaly's voice from her helmet startled her. Though she was wearing her suit, she hadn't heard a peep from him.

"What?"

"I've wiped both your traces from the monitors." There was the usual self-satisfaction in the centaur's voice, despite the magnitude of the situation. She couldn't believe that Foaly had found the time to gloat.

"How wonderful. Can I get on with it now?" Holly deployed the wings and took off into the shoot, activating the oxygen vent.

"I wanted you to know that the reason that this shoot was closed down, was that it was falling-"

Just as Foaly was finishing his sentence, a boulder sized chuck of the wall came tumbling down on her and Holly had only seconds to swerve out of the way. The rock grazed her side on the way down.

"-Apart. Be careful Holly. I know you want to get there but there's plenty of time. Don't hurt yourself by rushing. You won't be able to help anyone then."

"I'll be fine." Holly pulled the throttle on her wings and soared at the dark ceiling above her. The night vision in the helmet would allow her see where she was going, as there were no longer any lights linked into the tunnel.

Then her communicator rang. Holly's heart thudded. What was Butler calling her for?

"Hello? What is it?"

"I know this may sound strange Holly, but we need to meet before you help Artemis. His orders."

Holly's eyes widened. How had Artemis told Butler anything if he was in critical condition?

"Can't it wait?"

"I wish it could, but it must be something important or Artemis wouldn't have wanted it. He wants me to meet you in the bathroom at the restaurant across the street from the hospital. As much as I like you, I'm not going into the women's bathroom."

They were wasting precious time on this, but if Artemis had somehow expressed this desire, there had to be a reason for it.

"I'll be there in about six hours."

She couldn't be there any faster. As it was, the shoot she was currently on was for Versailles France. It was the closest and still the fastest way to Ireland, if not a lot of fly time on the surface, for which she would need to shield.

Holly could tell Butler was discouraged by the news. Holly was too. If there had been another way, she would have taken it.

"All right, Holly. I'll meet you there."

Butler broke the connection and Holly prepared for what could be the longest six hours of her life.

* * *

_Chapter One Restaurant, Dublin Ireland:_

It had been exactly six hours and three seconds since Butler's contact with Holly. He glanced up from his watch and tried not to feel so tense. Holly was coming. Artemis was still alive, though he basically had one foot in death's door. There was time.

Butler found himself pacing in front of the mirrors in the men's restroom anyway. He was sure that he was getting a few strange looks form the people entering the washroom, but he didn't focus on that. There was no one he had to protect right now. He wasn't supposed to be a solider anymore. What had happened to the quiet life he and Artemis had agreed on after that last adventure. It was an adventure which Butler hadn't been a part of and one that took Artemis away from him for three years. Though his instincts told him to stake the place out and make sure he wasn't under surveillance, the appeal fell on deaf ears. After all, it was not as if someone would have cameras in the bathroom.

Ten minutes later Holly entered as one of the more curious patrons stared at Butler. Something ran into the man's leg but when he turned back, there was nothing there. He shrugged and made his way back to his seat. He had a date waiting for him.

"Butler, make it quick." Holly unshielded. Her scans had already showed that they were alone.

"Here." Butler handed her a note. "Artemis wrote this. He was only conscious for a few seconds but he said it was important."

Holly looked down at it. The upside-down _e_ told her that the first sentence was written in Danish. It simply said for Butler to meet with her in a bathroom that wasn't in the hospital. The rest was a mess of symbols and boxes that could have been Gnomish. The only problem was that Holly couldn't make heads or tails of it.

"Let me see."

Holly was greeted with a picture of Foaly as several things on her helmet started working. The paper was scanned and download to the centaur's computer instantly.

"This is an easy one. Fowl mixed our language with Hebrew. I can have it decoded in about a twenty seconds. Do you want the message?"

"No, I want to sit here and figure it out for myself while Artemis dies."

Foaly's face fell and Holly let out a low sigh. "Sorry. Please tell me what it says."

"Fowl obviously knew that I'd be one to decipher it. It's addressed to me." Foaly brought up the same page that Artemis' note had been written on, but this time in was in plain Gnomish.

_Dear Foaly. Don't let Holly anywhere near this. There's someone watching me. Someone unfriendly. I'm not sure who they are at the moment, but it is a safe assumption that it would be detrimental to all concerned if they were to discover the People. You need to wipe all the camera in the hospital. All of them, if she is going to enter. Tell her to keep herself shielded while outside of the building._

That was it.

And the worst part of it was that Holly noticed that Artemis left out an 's' on the word camera. It wasn't a good sign. Artemis didn't make mistakes like that.

"Why's he so worried about the cameras? It's not like Holly could be picked up on them unless they viewed them frame by frame. The new suits make that even harder."

"I don't know, but if Artemis wrote it, it must be important." Butler crossed his arms, angry at not being made privy to what the note said. His disappointment went unnoticed.

Holly was puzzled about the comment as well. Not only was Artemis dying, but he was more worried about her going in while Foaly wasn't in control of the video feed, than he was about himself. He had also made her meet Butler in the bathroom – a place that _couldn't_ have cameras.

"Maybe he's being paranoid. In either case I'd have to control everything if Holly was going to heal him. It would be ideal if we could get Artemis out of the hospital first."

"There's not much time." Butler couldn't see the centaur's face like Holly could, but he could hear him. "Artemis had been getting worse."

"Again though, you have to take our position into account. We can't mind-wipe all the Mud Men who happen to hear the disturbance. Because it's a hospital, there's a high chance the police will be called in. You have to find some way of getting Fowl out."

"I'll be back." Butler turned to nod his head to Holly. "Meet me in the car."

Then the bodyguard was gone and Holly was left feeling anxious again. The hospital wouldn't release a dying boy. That meant that there would be either bribing or running involved. Holly hoped for the former. Of course, she shouldn't have hoped for either since both options were illegal. It seemed her respect for the law was slipping through her fingers like sand. This was somebody's _life._ The law _shouldn't_ be important right now, and it wasn't like anyone was being hurt in the process.

She could hear clicking over her head set as Foaly started typing on his computer.

"What are you looking up?"

"If Fowl was that worried about cameras, then he must have suspected someone in that industry was either spying on him or being used to spy on him. If I can track the line, I can find out who it was."

Holly shielded and made her way to the Fowl's vehicle. Luckily she had enough magic to pull this off or it would have taken another few hours that they couldn't afford. The Bentley wasn't hard to find.

Holly decided it was best to sit in the back. It was where Butler was likely to be. The vehicle had tinted windows, so it would be fine to do the healing there if they had to. The main problem was Artemis Fowl senior. He didn't know about the People. He couldn't. Artemis' mother was bad enough. The man would have to remain ignorant of the proceedings.

"Nothing," Foaly exhaled after several minutes. "Whatever leads Fowl might have, they'll have to wait until he wakes up. At which point you'll be out of there and back in Heaven."

"What?" Holly tried to glare at the screen in order to get her feelings across. "I can't leave if someone is out to kill Artemis!"

"It has nothing to do with us, Holly. Even going to the surface was against protocol. This is a matter between mud men. We can't get involved."

"Artemis is my friend, Foaly, your friend. I can't let him be killed. What if I'm not here the next time? What if he really dies?"

"That is not our problem. I know how you're feeling Holly. I feel the same. Trust me. But we can't do whatever we want. If every elf, sprite, and fairy was allowed act how they wished, it would be anarchy. I'm sorry but this time, we have no say in his future."

Holly turned her face away from the projection. She'd stay whether Foaly wanted her to or not. Something big was happening. She knew Artemis wasn't participating in any illegal activities anymore, not after what had happened with his mother. Whoever was after him was someone from his past. Most of _those_ someones included Holly's involvement.

Butler slammed the vehicle door open, carrying Artemis in his arms. The Irish boy was still wearing the white hospital gown. Holly moved over so that the big man could have some room, fading out of sight so no one could see her through the vehicle's open door. Artemis seemed to think it was important that she remain hidden.

The teen looked awful. His panther black hair was plastered across his face with sweat and he his breathing came in short hiccups. In Butler's much larger arms, Artemis seemed smaller then Holly had seen him in years.

Angeline took the driver's seat and looked behind her.

"Hello, Holly."

Holly shimmer into existence and greeted her with a nod of her head, taking the helmet off, as she didn't need it anymore. Artemis had told her, though much interrogation, that his mother had learned of the fairy people after Opal's involvement. Holly had agreed to keep it a secret but it would seem that Foaly would have to know now as well. Artemis's father didn't enter as Angeline started the truck and took off.

Butler answered Holly's questioning look.

"Artemis Fowl senior is staying behind. We told him that he couldn't come with because we were meeting someone who only knew the two of us and wouldn't help if an outsider came along. It took a while to convince him."

Holly nodded, seeing Foaly scanning Artemis with the helmet.

"We have to hurry. He doesn't have much time."

"I know." Butler tightened his hold on his young charge.

"So what happened?" They had the car ride back to Fowl Manor, if Artemis made it, and Holly was curious as to what had led to this.

"I'm not sure. We were walking. Someone shot Artemis in the back before we could reach the manor. I didn't even know he'd been hurt. The perimeter cameras showed nothing or an alarm would have sounded. I don't know how they got so close."

It didn't take a psychologist to hear the anguish in Butler's voice.

"Then." Butler shook his head. "Artemis took off. I don't know what he was trying to do. He didn't get far and I was able to catch up to him. I think he saw something then. I didn't have time to look around and find out what it was when I noticed-"

"-He'd been shot" Holly continued, looked fondly at Artemis. He had grown since she'd last seen him but he was still as thin as a guardrail and even paler now with the blood loss. She placed a hand on his head, stoking his slicked-back hair. Artemis weak. Dying. It was something Holly never thought she'd see, at least not so soon.

Holly stood up to put her hand over Artemis' chest and let a few sparks travel down her fingers. At least she could stabilize his breathing until they reached their destination.

With Angeline's driving, that didn't take long. Butler hurried in with the females in tow. They made their way into the living room, the first room in the house, where Butler placed Artemis gently on the previously stained sofa.

"Move," Holly ordered as Butler and Angeline huddled around the couch. Even though Artemis was alive, healing was tricky. She didn't need Foaly this time. Holly knew that she had to do what she did with Butler and give Artemis all the magic she had.

To do that she needed to make a cut to let the magic enter his body.

"Butler, do you have any razors?" Holly wasn't about to use the Neutrinoagain when she didn't have too. Butler went into the other room and brought out a box cutter. Holly winced. It was as good as a razor but it felt like a less delicate instrument. As if she was cutting into a pig blindly then into a boy.

The first thing she did was rip his gown open, so that she didn't have to undress him completely. Her concentration would be damned if she did that. Holly noticed that in order to get at the wound, she would have to be taller.

Feeling guilty, Holly shoved Artemis over to make room for her to stand over him on the couch. The blood beneath her feet was dry but there was so much of it that Holly couldn't help but imagine the feelings, _fear, hurt, love,_ of Artemis' parents when the Fowl's had learned that their son had been hurt.

Holly leaned over and threw the side of the gown away from her. The new black stitches were next to go. They were near the center of his chest, just to the left. Holly was sure the bullet had broken a few of his ribs but the doctors had taken care of that. Her magic would take care of any damage that they'd missed. After severing the black thread, even with how fresh the stitches were, Holly had to use the box cutter to give her access to his internal injuries. The small healing she had performed in the van had the wound mostly closed.

Angeline gasped and Artemis twitched, letting out a small noise of pain. Holly stopped, realizing that he wasn't under a sedative. As close as he was to death, Artemis was still trying to regain consciousness.

"Shh." Holly swept some of his hair out of his face and Artemis' expression relaxed. She took a deep breath to steady herself and placed her thumbs into the incision.

"Heal."

She could feel her magic spread, sweeping across her in a way that tingled from the inside.

_Magic?_

Holly had thought Artemis had used up all his magic. He shouldn't have had any left. It made her angry again as she remembered that he'd stolen the magic from _her,_ if not one of the warlocks_._ She wondered why he had done it, but had never gotten up the nerve to ask him. The magic felt different now. There wasn't much of it but it was tinged with something else. Her own magic, flowing from her, felt different to the residual magic she had felt inside Artemis. They'd been bonded at the time and his pilfered magic had felt like any other fairy's back then.

Time to worry about that later.

Holly didn't need to help hold Artemis down like she had with Butler. Butler's healing had been severe. His heart had to be restarted, whereas Artemis' was still beating. That didn't mean it wasn't violent. Artemis jolted several times where he lay, legs and arms moving rapidly. Though he didn't vocalize, Holly saw Artemis' eyes open as if he were reading a fasted paced book. After a minute the teen settled down, lids closed as if content with what they'd seen.

"Arty?"

Angeline rushed forward and looked Artemis over, searching his chest for any sign of the injury and finding none. When she was sure he was breathing normally, she started kissing him repeatedly.

"Thank you." Butler whispered, stopping Holly's swaying with a firm hand on her shoulder. Though she'd been trying to control it, Holly had really had the wind knocked out of her. Healing was hard. Not only that, but she'd had a long trip and almost no rest the night before. She had a few too many drunken pixies to blame that one on.

"Happy I could help." Holly let herself collapse in a controlled way, coming to sit on the carpeted floor. Her worry from the day took a while to drain away. Artemis was safe.

Angeline stopped fussing over her son and wrapped Holly up in a sudden hug that the fairy wasn't expecting.

"Thank you so much. I don't know how to repay you. I couldn't. Not in a million years could I repay you for what you've done."

Holly smiled tiredly and patted Angeline on the back. "You would have done the same for me."

Angeline nodded as she held tight, not releasing Holly.

"Everything turn out well then?"

Mulch's voice scared them all and Holly raised her eyebrows.

"You certainly got here fast. I was expecting to beat you by a few hours."

Mulch shrugged and Holly couldn't help but smile. The dwarf was worried too. In a male, sentimental kind of way, Mulch went over to Artemis and patted the teen on the shoulder. Holly noticed a few of his beard hairs brushed over the proclaimed child genius, who didn't seem to know when enough was enough. "Arty, you really gotta learn to stay out of trouble."

"Who are you?" Angeline let Holly go slowly, staring at Mulch. She wrinkled her nose. Mulch smelled terrible, even to Holly. She couldn't imagine how bad the dwarf smelled to someone who wasn't used to it. Angeline seemed to be debating over whether she should be welcoming him or chasing him out of her house.

"Mulch Diggums." Mulch took his hand off Artemis and held it out to the teen's mother. "Friend and occasional fairy consultant."

"As well as occasional thief, smuggler, and all around good guy," Holly added with a smile.

Angeline didn't know why Holly had said that last part as if it were a good thing but she shook Mulch's hand anyway.

"So, what have we gotten ourselves into this time?"

"This time?" Artemis's mother said in surprise. Holly winked at the dwarf.

"Officially we _weren't _here. We _aren't supposed_ to be here. We _should _be leaving."

Mulch grinned, showing off half a dead cockroach still wriggling between his teeth. "I knew this sounded fun."

* * *

...

Sorry, forgot to put this in before. "Chapter One", for those who don't know, _IS _a restaurant in Dublin. (pretty near the hospital too, though it  
was hard to tell with google. It also seems rather high class which is what I was aiming for)

I didn't want people to think I was stupid and couldn't come up with a good name :)


	3. Eye for an Eye

Wow. I went from getting three reviews to none. -_-  
Hm. Then again, as I said, I'm new to the whole Artemis Fowl scene, so that's nothing to be suprised about.  
Please commment though, now that I've revealed the plot of the story  
(and yes, everyone forgot this was taken from Artemis, didn't they ^_^ read and find out)

_**

* * *

**_

_**Chapter 3: Eye for an Eye**_

It would take a few days for the average person to wake up after that type of healing. Artemis though, had lower stamina then most so Holly couldn't predict how long he would be out. Foaly had tried to run searches in an attempt to narrow down the suspects, starting with all of Artemis' enemies up until that point. He had found a few, but none of them would explain the Irish boy's coded warning.

"I don't understand it," Foaly complained as he moved away from his computer and out of the screen on Holly's helmet. "What's so important about the video cameras?"

"You've got me." Holly was in the middle of making herself a sandwich. Artemis' father had come home shortly after the healing and Holly was currently staying in Butler's room so that she wouldn't be noticed. It was after midnight and the big guy was asleep right now. Holly, on the other hand was in the mood for a late night snack.

"You do know that I can't cover for you forever. Whatever Artemis has gotten himself into this time is his own problem."

Holly could just hear the hidden worry. There never used to be hit men out for the boy. Most of his enemies never knew the threat someone so young could be but he was getting older now. Snippers would have been the norm Holly would have expected as he aged if Artemis hadn't transitioned to legitimate ventures.

"I understand what you're saying Foaly, but I can't leave things the way they are."

"Two days Holly. That's all I can do." Foaly sighed. "On you're way back you'll need to pick up a pixy on an expired visa. That should give Trouble a reason for you staying topside for so long. Two days is pushing it, even with that. Don't get yourself in trouble."

"It's not like it's something new to me." Holly took a big bite out of the turkey and cheese sandwich. It wasn't bad. The food in Haven was so processed that it hardly had any flavor to it. As terrible as human food was on the system, what with the conditions it was treated in, it tasted great.

"Hmm"

Holly continued to eat, ignoring Foaly as he persisted on typing away. He didn't bother to mute his mike. Whatever he found, Holly was content to finish her meal.

"Fowl has been busy. You should see how he mixed my technology with his own. It's almost barbaric."

Holly let a small laugh escape her without interrupting. The centaur sounded like Artemis had taken one of his children and turned them into a stink worm. They were both well aware that Artemis had been playing around with fairy technology. The incident with the c-cube apparently hadn't put a stop to that.

There was a beep that indicated that the computer had picked up on something.

"Well now. This one isn't half bad."

"What is it?" Holly didn't really want to ask, but Foaly would start to _hmm _and _oh, I see _until she asked. She licked her fingers and put the bread away. Whole wheat. At least the Fowl's knew good food when they saw it. Holly doubted she would have found a better selection of ingredients in the country.

"I almost missed it. It slipped under my radar. If it weren't for a murmur of a reading that I accidentally picked up, I wouldn't have even made a blip. It must be made of some untraceable polymer."

"Did you just give someone a complement?" Holly raised her eyebrows and gave her helmet a mock shocked expression. She heard Foaly stomp on the ground.

"Most certainly not! This thing is still ages behind what I produce!" Foaly brought up a screen on her visor so she could see the sour look on his face. "I didn't think Fowl had gotten to nanotechnology surveillance yet! There's even an omni-sensor on it."

"Really?"

Holly jumped at hearing the third voice in the room. It was rare for someone to have been able to sneak up on her. Her stance fell back to a lax one and the adrenaline fed into her anxiety instead. "Artemis?"

The Irish teen smirked at her to show he was indeed real. There were dark lines under his eyes and his arms shook from where they were crossed in front of him. He'd been leaning against the wall for some time and Holly could see that he wasn't handling standing very well.

"Artemis, you just went through an extensive healing. You shouldn't even be awake right now."

The last Holly had seen of him, he was in his bed and his mother had fallen asleep at his side. Since Angeline wasn't in the room, it meant Artemis had not only snuck up on her but had slipped away from his mother unheard. It was an impressive feat for someone who couldn't even stand up straight.

"I'll rest when there's time. Right now I have more important issues than catching up on my sleep." Artemis shot what Holly almost believed was a worried stare at the computer generated image of Foaly on her helmet. "This nanotechnology you picked up was on the perimeter of the estate, correct?"

Foaly nodded. He looked angry at the prospect of Artemis hearing his almost compliment.

The teen smiled and closed his eyes. To everyone present it looked like he was about to go to sleep against the wall.

"It's not mine." Artemis' eyes opened slowly and focused on the other two. "The nanotechnology I've been working on is strictly kept in the confines of the safe. I haven't developed them to environmental standard yet. They short out if they're left for more than half an hour in the elements. This is someone else's."

There was a minute of silence.

"That's impossible, Fowl. There's fairy technology built into it. I can see several sensors that I personally built myself. Humans couldn't have made it."

"I know." Artemis sighed. "It passed completely under my own radar, but there's more to it then that. It appears that it's positioned on a weed from what I could gather. It scarcely releases energy. I can't pick up its shape from this distance. I had to check before I came down here, knowing what I was looking for this time. I believe the nanotechnology was actually manipulated to create an ambient life form."

More silence, this time leaving Holly confused. "What do you mean? It is alive or not?"

"Its physical composition is becoming part of the plant. It's integrating with the living cells."

Foaly's eyes glazed over as he stared into the distance. "That's ingenious. Soon nothing will be able to pick it up."

"Exactly." Artemis didn't seem as pleased with this information as Foaly did. "Spy cameras that can't be traced." The teen raised one of his hands, so that he could cover his mouth when he coughed. He swayed as his center of balance was disrupted.

"Artemis you look awful. Go back to sleep."

"I can't Holly. I don't think you understand the potential calamity this little machine could bring about. Fairy technology in the hands of someone is enough of an obstacle. Someone other than me, of course." Artemis' hand moved to his head and his eyes fogged over as he stopped seeing the occupants in the room.

"I've got you, Fowl, though I wouldn't say fairy technology in your hands is safe either." Foaly stomped around again, this time in aggravation. "But who is it? The only one who has had access to fairy technology is you! This nano-bot is revolutionary, to say the least, but I don't see how it proves to be much a problem."

"Maybe not for you," Artemis admitted. "Yet imagine what an omni-sensor could lead humans too."

This Foaly couldn't dispute. "Point taken. So what do we do? First we need to find out who's behind this."

"I've got that covered. I also know how they came into possession of the ingredients that were required for this little marvel."

"Of course you do, Fowl. Every time something like this happens, it's because of you."

Artemis looked like he was going to argue but stopped himself, closing his mouth. "You're right. I should have noticed the repercussions that would have followed the theft."

"Theft? You let someone steal fairy technology from you?" Holly was shocked. It was hard to steal form a thief, especially an ex-criminal mastermind.

"I allowed it to be stolen as an act of intimidation. I didn't think that they would hold onto it. Again, I take responsibility for the mishap."

Another surprise. Artemis was taking responsibility for something.

"You really must not be feeling well."

"In any case," Artemis continued, ignoring the jibes. "Our adversary is Jon Spiro. I haven't heard that he's been released from prison, but he must have pulled it off. Considering I also haven't heard of his break out, I'm assuming there's a lot of money being thrown around. I thought I'd emptied his accounts, but I was under pressure at the time. I admit to the possibility of overlooking a shadow account or two. Knowing the man, he most likely had it with an associate or under a false name."

"Spiro? The guy who you had us running circles around because of _your _mistake?"

Artemis raised his hands in surrender, or more likely a gesture to get them to quiet down without him having to waste energy on speaking.

"Yes him. I know it's him because the man hates me. He wasn't going to leave it up to someone else to kill me, considering the spectacular failures of his guards in the past, but also because of _mesmer_ involvement, though he does not know that. I'm sure that even now he doubts that I'm dead."

"Why? I mean, you would have been dead if I hadn't come." Holly crossed her arms as stared angrily at him. There was something he wasn't telling them. Artemis was always keeping the juicy information to himself.

"First I know it was him because I saw him." Artemis blinked his eyes before settling them on her in an attempt to make himself appear more cognitive then he actually was. "He was wearing something that I have to assume had fairy technology built into it and was interfering with my video feed. I can tell you this because all I have recorded at the time is static. Furthermore, he will know I'm alive for two reasons. One, that bullet shouldn't have killed me. I made it to the hospital in time to be helped. Why complications appeared, I'm unsure. I was hoping to get some ideas from the two of you. The other reason is that Spiro saw me disappear right in front of him. He will think that I have capabilities that others do not."

"But you don't."

"No," Artemis agreed. "I don't. The fact is that he didn't see you, Holly. To him, I seem like an opponent he can toy around with, as he doesn't believe that I relayed on anyone during our last confrontation. I'm the challenge and he wants to prove in every way that he's superior to me. It's why he didn't kill me."

"Artemis."

Holly and the teen both turned to Foaly who had a grim expression on his face.

"I can understand how this would be a problem for us in the future, but the council will hardly take up their metaphorical swords in your defense. We'll need Holly to get rid of this threat. We can't waste our time watching out for you."

"I'm aware of that."

They waited but no argument followed. Artemis let out a small laugh. It sounded like a cough.

"I wasn't going to ask you to stay. I have no doubts that you have already assessed, as I have, that the best option is to use me as bait. As that can't be counted on, you'll track Spiro through the phantom account he must have opened and follow the paper trail."

"So you'll have no problem without our help?"

Here Artemis' smile matched his one of old. "I have no doubt we'll cross paths again. You may take the round-about way, but we're pursuing the same individual. I think it is pertinent to mention, that for once I have the greater resources. I imagine working around the obstacles, the way your council wants you to, will be quite difficult. However if that is the way they wish to proceed, who am I to deny them? "

"Artemis," Foal sighed. "You can't manipulate us."

"That was not my intention. Though, it is blatantly obvious that the best results will be achieved if we hit him with a coordinated effort of magical and non-magical strikes."

"While you're bringing up that magical bit, how were you able to keep a few sparks to yourself?"

Artemis frowned. "I wasn't. I don't have any magic left."

Holly thought to herself. If Artemis wasn't able to get to the portion he had left, would it affect his physical body? Was that why the blood transfer didn't work? She shot Foaly a look and the centaur shrugged.

"I don't know Holly. As far as I know, Artemis is the only human to acquire magic in over a millennia. I'd need to physically examine him."

Artemis raised an eyebrow and looked on as if he were watching and interesting chess match. "Something I'm missing?"

"There's time to worry about that later." Holly stared down Foaly. "So what are we going to do?"

He shook his head. "I don't know. I'd have to talk with Trouble, I mean Commander Kelp, and explain the situation. Protocol dictates you're to return to Haven until a decision is made but, and I'm sure you're going to listen to reason. It's probably a better idea for you to stay and monitor the situation. Keep in mind that this Spiro guy has at least one eye outside the house. Stay indoors or shield if you leave."

"I've got it." Holly let out a breath and saw Artemis do the same. The Irish youth still looked nervous, but less so at this point.

"Don't want to be left alone with the big bad wolf, Arty?"

Artemis allowed himself a smile. "Not in my condition. You're right. I need rest. Even now I can't think clearly and am overlooking things I shouldn't. My primary evaluation should be correct though."

"We should _all_ get some sleep. You'll need me to track down Spiro tomorrow."

"Indeed. I'll be able to work on it from my end as well. Jon doesn't seem like the type of man to leave a traceable path, especially now that he's aware that there's someone bigger than him in the race. I can see him setting a trap. Playing naive worked once, but he won't fall for it again."

"Right, plans being left for tomorrow, I need to get some shut eye. You should see what my coat looks like when I don't get my beauty rest."

Holly sighed. "Yes, Foaly. There's a criminal maniac out there who's not Artemis Fowl and we all care how pretty you look in the morning."

Foaly huffed. "Caballine says I have a nice coat."

"How can we be sure that Spiro won't do anything while we're asleep?" Holly was surprised at how easily Artemis and Foaly were taking it. This man could have done anything with the LEP technology he has. Holly brought up a question she had been holding for a while and asked, "Artemis, you said it was your fault, but what did Spiro take?"

"My eye-cam, remember? You were there." Artemis placed a finger beside his eye. "It was when my eye wasn't naturally brown. He took it out before you retrieved me. As for why he won't act until he has more information, in the words of another physicist, 'If the price of avoiding non-locality is to make an intuitive explanation impossible, one has to ask whether the cost is too great.' Jon doesn't know what he's onto. Right now logic is telling him that the occurrences that played out in front of him were impossible. I believe I was brought in still injured. That won't make sense to him. I- I do hope you're following me because I'm too tired to delve into further explication." Artemis sighed, looking tired. Holly didn't care too much at that moment. She was getting answers and a fully-functioning Artemis would be keeping them to himself. "

"David Bohm. One of the reasonable thinkers that helped us stay hidden for so long."

"Most likely." Artemis let his eyes close again. "People don't believe in the impossible anymore, they put far too much faith in intuitive answers. Jon will wait until he has time, energy, and daylight in order to facilitate his uneasy mind. By then he should have some reasonable excuse and renewal in tracking me down. Before daybreak, striking would be foolish. If he does find the initiative for a preemptive attack, Butler will be watching for veiled movements. I may not be able to trace the devices while they're inactive or integrated, but I can get them while they're in motion."

"I'll keep an out too. I don't want you to cost Holly her job again."

"Thank you."

"Oh no, I think I've just been given credit for something." Foaly put a hand to his forehead as he feigned shock. Holly couldn't help smiling. Artemis and Foaly only found time to throw around their terrible humor in dire situations.

"Right. Goodnight." Instead of walking out of the room, Artemis took a step away from the wall, only to lean back against it and let himself fall into a sitting position on the floor.

"Artemis, the wall isn't your bed."

"I am well aware of that." The teen rested his head on one of his knees while the helmet screen clicked off to signify Foaly's departure.

"What am I supposed to do with you? You do know that you're twice my weight and there's no way I can carry you." Holly walked over, feeling the urge to brush Artemis' hair out of his eyes. He'd let it lengthen to a more ragged style recently.

"Don't." Artemis swatted her hand away and Holly felt insulted.

"What? Don't want me to look at you?"

"No, it's not that." Artemis turned his head to the side so his hair parted over one of his eyes, the ice blue one. "It's the touching. You may have gotten over your teenage days after we returned from our time excursion, but I'm still living mine. Hormones, you know."

Holly took a step back with what she would later deny was a blush on her face. "Why would you feel that way with me?"

The hair fell back in his face as Artemis attempted to stand up. "I have no idea. It seems to come upon me at the most inconvenient of times."

"Here." Holly came back and offered him a hand up. "Get to bed. I'll blame that on lack of sleep."

"I appreciate that." Artemis stood, though it was clear if Holly were to let go of his wrist he would fall again.

"How are you even awake? I wouldn't think even Butler would have been able to wake that quickly."

"Mind over matter. I had to make sure that my actions weren't being observed. If they were, there'd be a much more severe danger in letting you into the manor. I did a thorough sweep of the manor and picked up no energy readings, or negative readings. These things appear to repeal light waves, you see."

"I have no idea what you're talking about. Save the explanations for Foaly."

They came to the stairs and Holly glanced at Artemis' long suffering expression.

"I believe I'll sleep on the couch. Making it down was one thing, making it up is another. I doubt my mother will miss me when she notices that I've simply moved down here."

"No." Holly took the first steps and dragged him up with her. "You've scared your mom enough as it is in the last twenty-four hours. Come on, you can make it. We've been through worse."

Artemis sighed. His eyes seemed to want to stay closed with every blink. He had been through worse. Climbing the stairs couldn't be worse then climbing the ladder with drooling trolls at his ankles. The only difference was that he had incentive then.

"Artemis." Holly punched him hard in the arm. "Get moving."

Okay, there was his incentive. Artemis put out an unsteady hand on the railing and made slow work of the mountain of stairs with Holly's pulling and, when he stopped, prodding.

"You do know that poking me in the lower ribs is more likely to get me to fall over than continue, right?"

Holly poked him again. "I don't really care which you do."

It sounded like she meant it. Artemis knew Holly was still angry with him for lying about his mother's illness. It all seemed so pointless now. He still didn't believe that she would have assisted him if he hadn't fabricated the lie. She could leave him to a killer any second now, at the word of her superiors. It was why he found the need to be manipulative. If you didn't have the upper hand, you didn't have the support.

Thoughts weren't forming as easily as they should have and Artemis couldn't find a way to stay on top. It must have been a side effect of the healing, he thought. Soon, after he'd gotten some rest, now that he knew that his family wasn't in immediate danger, he'd figure something out. He always did.

It seemed to take all his energy to reach the top and Artemis would have collapsed right there if not for a hand under his arm.

"We're almost there. Hold on a while longer."

Her voice is so nice, Artemis found himself thinking. It was calming with sweet undertones of authority and empathy. It was the type of voice that would be used to speak to injured animals. The only difference was the unearthly quality her voice contained. The truth was though, that Holly _was_ from this world. It was humans who had driven her and her people away. Why can't we all live together, like this?

Artemis shook his head. Hormones. He hoped they would pass quickly. His lips remembered Holly's against his, even if it had only been a second. He shook his head against the thoughts but they didn't fade. There had been a spark. Magic.

No. Not right now. There's someone out to kill me right now and I can't be distracting myself with these teenage emotions. Artemis blinked and saw Holly looking at him with open curiosity.

"Having trouble staying awake?"

More than a little, but that wasn't what was plaguing him now. "Yes. If my room wasn't around the corner I would have you let me go and I'd sleep on the carpet."

"The great Artemis Fowl sleeping on the floor. I'd like to see that."

Now that Artemis had regained his objectivity, he refused to let his mind wander from it. "I wouldn't."

"Then hurry up, already. I think it's taken us five minutes to walk down the hall."

Holly opened the door when they reached it and Artemis closed his eyes, hoping that, by not seeing it, his mother would remain asleep. It sounded foolish after he'd opened his eyes again to find her sleeping right where she had been.

"Thank you Holly. I'll see you in the morning." Artemis disentangled his arm, grateful that he was out of contact with the elfin girl, but also wishing, somewhere in the back of his mind, that he didn't have to be. Stop it, he chided himself.

"Good night, Arty. I'll be up before you, but I'm staying in Butler's room so your father doesn't spot me. Get me if you need me."

He nodded as the door closed, Holly didn't notice.

Artemis tired to make it back under the covers without disturbing his mother, but he soon found it a more difficult task than getting out had been. He settled towards the edge of bed and let his eyes close. Before they slid shut he was sure he saw his mother smile at his from where her head was resting sideways on his bed. Artemis didn't open his eyes again so he wasn't sure if he had imagined it or not.


	4. Blindsided

Thanks for commenting everyone ^^  
I don't think I've ever worked so hard on any of my stories before  
And, though it's different from my anime fandom (as Wolfy has pointed out to me)  
All you guys are great and I hope you continue to enjoy the story

* * *

_**Chapter 4: Blindsided**_

It took Holly longer to wake up than she had expected. The possibility of malicious people charging the house at any moment provided good incentive to wake up. Holly blamed her lack of awareness on the magical drain that the healing had taken on her. She'd have to perform the ritual soon, because all she could count on at the moment were the bare minimum of her abilities. Some short term shielding, healing a small cut or two, or speaking were as far as she was going to get. She smiled as old memories surfaced. She's taken on Spiro with next to nothing the first time as well.

She sat up on her little cot in the corner of the room. Sunlight was streaming in through the closed curtains. The thick blinds opened upwards so anyone trying to peek in would only see the ceiling, although being on the second floor made that difficult enough. Butler was gone, but she hadn't been expecting to see him there anyway.

Holly stretched, jumping down onto the un-carpeted floor. Most of Butler's room was designed so that it required as little cleaning as possible. The floors were wooden and there was no decoration, though she was sure there was more than just plaster behind the walls. A table was in the opposite corner of the room. On it rested a lone folder, stuffed beyond its holding point. Aside from a metal wall lamp, the room was basically bare.

Decor aside, Holly left the room in search of the others.

Artemis was most definitely not getting the rest he needed and typing away at some program that took up three of the screens as it ran scans. This did not reflect well on his genius status.

"Artemis, I thought you were going to get some rest."

"It's almost ten in the morning Holly. I've been sleeping for over twelve hours. I doubt that I'll need more before tonight. Besides, I must find out if Spiro has introduced any hostile devices that haven't been uncovered yet.

"Which Foaly can do," Holly pointed out as she sat herself in the only other chair in the room. "And I'm sure you know that sleep after healing isn't the same as normal sleep. Even after you were hurt for a while, and we still don't know why you weren't able to receive the blood transfusion. Something's wrong with you Artemis and you shouldn't be moving around before we know what it is."

"I don't know of there's anything- wrong with him." Foaly took over one of the computer screens. He'd been running scans of his own to help Artemis with his debugging in a smaller screen. Now he took up a larger one so that his presence was noticeable. "Magic has unpredictable after effects. It wouldn't surprise me if Artemis now has some new blood type that hasn't existed in millennia."

"Despite how much I would love to test this theory, there are more important things going on and sitting in an examination room will not help solve them."

"And your parents?" Holly asked. "Where are they?"

"My mother is still asleep in my room. I didn't think it necessary to wake her. She knows that I'm well. I haven't seen my father yet, but I've picked him up on one of the surveillance cameras and he's currently asleep in his study. Both should be waking up soon and I would like to get this finished before they have opportunity to wonder what I'm up to."

"You're father's going to wonder what happened to you last night. What are you going to tell him?"

Artemis didn't even spare Holly a glance at her question, continuing to focus on the screen in front of him. "I don't need to tell him anything. I was unconscious so there is no reason for me to know how I was helped. My mother won't reveal anything about the People to him, so it will be fine."

"How optimistic."

This Artemis smiled at. "He's my father and I am well. I don't think he'll care how it came about. At one time, he might have, but now I doubt he'll even bring up the subject."

"Fine." Holly let it go. "What about our little bug. Did he come with friends?"

"Not that we've been able to discover," Foaly told her, his dark eyes meeting hers across thousands of miles. "This is a scientific wonder though. The one on the weed has already merged, indistinguishable from plant matter. It's even undergoing photosynthesis. I have my sensors locked on the place the last reading came from but I can't pick up anything."

"So? Why aren't we pulling the plant up by the roots and chucking it over the wall?"

Artemis and Foaly both glared at her as if they'd asked her why they weren't jumping in a vat full of troll waste.

Artemis pinched the bridge of his nose, clearly not happy that he had to explain 'why' to her. "This isn't something you can throw away. For Jon to have developed symbiosis, and at this level, is..."

Holly raised an eyebrow. "You don't want to stop it, but you want to know how it works?"

"Holly, you don't understand. The technology to make something like this, even a hundred years from now, is inconceivable. This 'bug', as you called it, has the potential to be so much more if only I could develop a similar-"

"Enough, Artemis. I don't want to hear how revolutionary and awesome and great this thing is. What I want to know is why it's still out there feeding all the information it can back to Spiro, who is out to kill you."

"First off Holly," Artemis sighed, upset to have to turn away from his computer screens. "I don't want Jon to know that I picked up his invisible friend. He thinks he's safe right now. As long as Butler doesn't do exactly as you said, meaning disabling or removing the nanobot - or bots, then Jon won't know that we've discovered his little intruders. It is better to be underestimated because at this point I believe he has developed an image of me that I cannot hope to live up to. I doubt he's even thinking rationally any longer. There were many impossible things that I pulled off while in his company, that can not be explained by the rational mind."

"You've lost me Artemis. So, while you want him to underestimate you, you know that he won't? Doesn't that defeat the purpose?"

"Not necessarily. He'll still want proof to justify his assumptions. He's not a brainless monkey. I doubt he'll try anything direct at the moment, though I can't be sure." The young teen frowned. The look would have been more appropriate on a wise, old chess master facing off against a difficult opponent. "It's been bothering me though. He obviously didn't plan to kill me with that bullet. What was he after?"

"Maybe he just wanted to scare you - the bullet was his way of saying 'Tag, you're it'."

"No." Artemis shook his head and interlocked his fingers on the desk in front of him. "Jon is many things, and though he plays games, he wouldn't do it in this manner. It's not a competition. Shooting me as a way of staring off our duel would in turn mean that he is expecting me to fight an arms battle against him. Neither of us prides ourselves on that type of challenge, so I can't see the purpose behind it. Intimidation is the more likely of the two options, but that still leaves me wondering why he didn't shoot me somewhere that didn't require hospitalization. As it was, I passed out soon after. If he was trying to intimidate me, he'd want me conscious and afraid."

"I don't know Artemis. Maybe it's not supposed to mean anything. Spiro's smart, but I don't think he puts as much thought into everything the same way you do. He could be acting on instinct."

"Maybe you're right." Artemis' eyes flickered back to one the screens. "My mother's awake. I should let her know that I haven't vanished." The teen put a hand to his head as he rose.

"Is something wrong?"

A few blinks later and Artemis was shaking his head. "No, I doubt it's anything important. I've had a terrible headache since I woke. The pain relievers I took don't seem to be doing anything, but it's not something I can't manage."

As Artemis walked out, Holly let her frown deepen. She turned to Foaly who still had his screen up, though he's attention had been focused elsewhere for the last few minutes.

"Foaly, have you ever heard of someone feeling sick after a healing?"

The centaur looked up from his consol. "No, why? Healing doesn't work that way, you know that Holly. If anything, the individual feels better than they did before the injury. We still don't know all the after affects, but I would certainly know if there were any negative ones."

"That's what I thought." She kept her arms snuggled more securely against her small frame. Her worry for Artemis seemed to deepen by the second. A spark of intuition told her that he could be lying to her again to suit his own ends, but there was no reason for that because she'd already told him that she was prepared to stay by his side. What they needed now was a plan and Artemis hadn't mentioned any.

"So, no preemptive strike? We're just going to wait here with this little bug watching us and do nothing?" she asked Foaly.

"We have to get a clear picture of the situation first, Holly. Besides, with these advanced nanobots, we're not sure what Spiro has developed. I can't seem to track him down yet. I've been trying since I woke up. He had two accounts still active but both are empty. Not transfer, no trail, taken clean out of the bank. Spiro's not hiding out at his house and any relatives he has haven't seen him in years. He made sure that we wouldn't be able to trace him. Without knowing where he is, we don't have many options other than waiting."

"For him to try and kill Artemis again?"

Foaly sighed. "Holly, what else can we do? Artemis knows the game now. He not as easy to prey on as you seem to think he is. I'm sure everything will be fine."

"I hope so."

Holly watched the screen in front of her as Artemis met with his mother for a few fleeting minutes. It seemed there was a camera in every angle of the house except for the study that she was currently occupying. She followed him with eyes as the teen and his mother walked to the kitchen, debating something in low tones. The microphones seemed to be turned off and, as much as she would have liked to, Holly resisted turning them on.

Artemis' mother seemed to be fussing over him when she tried to offer him something to eat and he refused at that point something came up on one of the screens.

"Foaly," Holly snapped, forcing the centaur's eyes one her. "What's that?"

Foaly turned but the camera on Artemis' study computer wouldn't rotate enough to allow him to see it. Holly's face darkened and she said nothing while, miles away, the same screens were brought up on his own computer."

"Can you trace it?" Holly asked under her breath.

"If it was sent electronically I can trace it." Holly noticed nuances of uncertainty in his voice. Foaly had never been uncertain of anything when it came to technology before. The only one who had ever beaten him at that game had been Opal. The pixie was off her rocker though, and there was a good deal of that insanity that often went into creation. Holly would choose a less insanely creative gadget any day. The fact that Opal had tried to kill her several times also gave her the incentive to be loyal and stand by her friend's inventions.

The minutes ticked away. Foaly's typing echoed in the silent study.

"Anything?" Holly asked after feeling that if she had to endure one more minute of suspense, she'd likely smash one of the monitors and Artemis was going to be upset enough as it was.

"Nothing. Not even a digital trace made it further than the computer's hard drive. Holly, this guy is good. Artemis good."

"That's not reassuring." Holly stared down the screen, her hands on the desk, causing the mouse to wake up one of the computers that had been on standby. "What about those weird words? What do they mean?"

"Ah, those-"

"Holly?"

Holly jumped back, startled to find Artemis closing the door behind him. Her momentary fright caused her to knock the keyboard in front of her into one of the monitor stands and it hung almost halfway off the table. She reached over to put it back into place.

"You seem to be getting really good at sneaking up on me."

"Hardly my intention," Artemis tried to reassure her. "What was it that had you so interested?"

Holly's eyes shined, unable to hide what she know her stoic facial expression accomplished. The Irish teen scooted her chair back from the desk so that he could have a look.

_**"All warfare is based on deception" **_

_**Sun Tzu**_

Typed under it, in smaller print, were the words "Matthew 26:52." Holly had no idea what those were alluding to but the way Artemis' eyes scanned over them a second time, they had to be important.

"The first part will be simple enough to decipher but, I haven't yet memorized the bible. Foaly, what verse is this?"

"Hold on Artemis, I'm looking." The centaur's attitude had hardened slightly. Holly was a friend. Artemis was more of a rival, though Foaly would never admit to having such a thing. "Here were go, the book of Matthew-"

Holly understood it then. She knew that there were many humans who had a bible of their own, much like the fairy bible that instructed them on how to live their life. While the Book was more along the lines of a set of rules, the human bible consisted of stories and morals that the Mud Men worshiped.

"'Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.' Hmm. Well, not to hard to figure out what that one means, huh Arty? He who wants to be a criminal will be brought down by a criminal. Very clichéd, this guy. I didn't expect this much."

"Neither did I. Jon never seemed the poetic type."

"Who cares?" said Holly. She was clearly exasperated with the pair of them. "It doesn't matter right now. Facts are facts and I'd like it if some of them were explained in plain Gnomish. First, why weren't you able to trace the message, Foaly?"

"Virus wipe behind it. It's amazing. It completely wiped the electronic trail without deleting the message. Most viruses eat whatever was sent after a certain time frame too, but this one disappeared, as if it ate itself, after it reached the computers here. There's no trail for me to trace, not even a bread crumb one."

"Okay, so we still have no idea where Spiro is. What about the message?" She turned to Artemis for this. Foaly could have figured it out as well, but Artemis was the one it was sent to and obviously had some meaning pertaining solely to him.

"It doesn't surprise me that he's thinking of this competition as warfare, but I don't fully understand what he intended by sending the message. Deception, first off, is the art of drawing ones attention away from what is important. What do I find important? My secrets, as I wouldn't want Jon to discover the People. My family, but every-"

Artemis seemed to stop breathing for a moment and when he started again, it was too fast and uneven to be anything other then veiled panic. Years of taciturn obedience when dealing with potential and real enemies was washed away. Holly remained silent as the implications that left Artemis' words dry filled her head.

"We don't know for sure Artemis. Go talk to you're mom. Find out."

The teen didn't even spare her a glance as he strode over to the door. He was not rushed but his pace was by no means the measured, confident one he usually walked around with.

"Foaly," she asked, once she was sure Artemis was out of ear shot. "We really need to find Spiro now. Isn't there something you can do?"

"I wish there was Holly, but I'm at a loss here. I can't even imagine how this Spiro guy created the nanobots outside." The centaur's face fell and he seemed more depressed than Holly had ever seen him.

On Foaly's end, he was truly envious at what Spiro had accomplished. True, his interests didn't extend into hybrid technology when the helmet cams worked so well. Spying on Mud Men to that extent never seemed necessary. The other thing that was bothering him was the fact that two lives now lay on the line because of him. Artemis may have been the one who had gotten the iris cam stolen but Foaly was the one who should have had a detailed account on the return of the equipment. He hadn't even noticed the missing camera.

Artemis came back in the room quickly and fell into the chair that he had left vacant. One of his hands came to rest against his forehead. It was shaking. "They're gone. The woman who they were left with was knocked unconscious. When my mother called she was put though to an officer. They're going to file a report but-"

"It won't help." Holly continued. "We need to find them."

Artemis' other hand was resting on his knee and he balled it into a fist. "Why take Myles and Beckett? They've done nothing to him and a pair of three-year-olds will provide little leverage."

"Artemis." Holly tired to get the high-strung teen to look her in the eye, but his mind seemed to be elsewhere. "You love them. They're your brothers and, being young, they are easy to keep under control. I'm sure Spiro knows, or at least suspects, that kidnapping them would be a good way to get to you."

The teen didn't seem to be listening to her, but it wasn't as if he needed to. Holly knew that he must have come to the same conclusions. She spoke up louder. "Artemis, calm down."

"Right." Artemis shook his head and tried to block out of the darker thoughts that were suddenly filling his mind. "I must calm down. A clear, rational mind is necessary to prevail."

Holly didn't bring up the other reason that Myles and Beckett were a good tool to use against Artemis. Having them missing was shaking him up more than Holly had thought possible. If Spiro caught on that killing the twins would hurt Artemis even more, there was nothing the Irish boy could do to stop him. Holly only prayed that he man had enough of a conscience not to kill the young twins. Then again - Holly stared at Artemis as the teen composed himself - the man didn't seem to have a problem with murder.

"Why did he add in that bit about the sword?" Foaly asked all of a sudden, destroying both of their conversations.

"Simple," Artemis began. "My father was a thief, as was I. Before a few years ago, it seemed to be a family legacy. I'm sure he believes the twins to be on the same road, even if all of our ventures are currently clean. Jon's the type of person who believes that a leopard can never change its spots."

"So he's saying that he's not only against you, but your family?" Holly asked. Artemis shook his head.

"No, he wants me. I'm the one he's taunting by doing this. He's trying to show how powerless I was to stop it. All true facts, but I doubt he suspects that I'm pursuing him alone. My father has been back for a few years and I have no doubt that he believes that my whole family are his enemies."

"So what do we do? What's he after?"

Artemis finally let his body relax. The hand on his leg unfurled and his fingers stilled. "He still wants me, I'm sure of it. There are many ways that he can use the twins to get to me. The most likely scenario though, would be a trade. Them for me."

"Which we're not going to do until we find him," Holly stated flatly. Artemis' gaze told her that he had the exact opposite intentions. "Trading you for them won't help us if we can't find him. I'm sure he'll try and pull it off in someway that will make following you impossible."

Artemis closed his eyes. "I've thought of that but there are several facts that I can't ignore. The first is that I'm the elder brother. I should be the one to protect them. The second is that it's two lives against one. It does not take a genius to see the better option. The last is that this is my fault. They shouldn't be made to suffer because I handed over something so undeniably dangerous to someone like Jon. I will find the twins and, if I must, I will switch places with them."

"We will find them," Holly agreed. "But there has to be a better way."

"There is none." Artemis stared at Foaly's open screen and the centaur couldn't dispute his claims. Holly shook her head at Artemis' knowing grin.

"Besides Holly, the twins belong in this family more than I do."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Holly saw a darkness around Artemis' piercing eyes. She had first noticed it upon their return from Hybras. She's seen a similar displacement around him when he'd called to help cure his mother's sickness as well, but she'd mistaken it for worry back then. Now she was seeing it too often to keep dismissing it.

"I've been missing for three years. In that time my parents had gotten their lives back together, renewed their love of life and of each other. Then they had the twins and I'm sure they were happy. I came back and gave them false hope for having a normal, happy family. I made my mother sick; unintentionally, of course, but the result was the same. I caused her and my father worry, not only over the years of my disappearance, but while I was sitting in front of them as well. Now, because of my past actions, I have gotten my brothers kidnapped. It's not hard to see that I'm wrench in the works."

"You don't expect me to believe that nonsense."

Artemis said nothing. Holly got up and grabbed his hand hard enough to hurt.

"Listen to me. They are your family and they love you. Even after your mother learned about the People, she didn't shun you. Stop expecting the world to turn against you. Artemis, you're young. I thought you were trying to let all the bad things go and get on with your life."

"Trying and failing."

"That's not true, Artemis." Her grip loosened up to hold his hand securely but comfortingly. "We know you've been trying. I'm sure on some level even your father knows. You're the only one who hasn't accepted who you are."

"Maybe, but that doesn't change the fact that anyone who associates with me could be put in danger."

"You're not the only one like that." Holly put a hand to her chest. "You know how many enemies I've made in over four times the amount of years you have? I haven't had my mother or father around since I was young. I had to cope with that and I still get on with my life. Stop making yourself a pity case."

A screen flashed before Holly could see if her words had gotten through. Artemis' eyes narrow at the text, bold, and in the same font as the early quotes.

**A Pion for a Roi, little Arty. Come meet me at Mary's where we may finish our game alone, though I'm afraid I hold a checkmate.**

**

* * *

**

...

...

If anyone figured out what that meant, Kudos to you. If not, you'll have to wait :) (and yes, there was a purpose for everything in this chapter)


	5. Destination

I apologize profusely for taking so long. I've been out of writing not only this, but my other stories as well.  
I don't know why. I had been trying to write, it just wasn't happening.  
Hopeful that is over now and I will update much sooner.

Thank you WolfButler for pointing out my mistake

Again, I'm sorry.

**Chapter 5: Destination**

"I must leave." Artemis took the time to pluck a laptop from beside the desk before stepping out of the room.

"Where are you going, Artemis?" Holly took a final look at the message on the computer before following the teen. He may have had longer legs now, but Holly was in better shape and easily kept pace beside him. They descended the stairs together, Artemis treating her presence comradely. "You're not going to meet him, are you? Not by yourself."

"Of course not, Holly, I was planning on digging up information from an old colleague of mine. The man may not have the best reputation but his assistance was invaluable during some of my more delicate projects. If I can't track Spiro with fairy technology, he's the only other being I can think of that would have the means."

"And the message?" Holly didn't let up. "What did it mean?"

"I have no idea, and no time to decipher it. It's clear that Jon is intending to play word games with me and I'd rather take an active role in finding him than waiting as he gives me pieces to solve when I can retrieve the whole puzzle."

Holly searched his face from her smaller height, trying to find either falseness or truth. She only found a blank expression. Artemis had not been this hard to read since she had first met him. The Irish boy had changed over the years, but at that moment, Holly could have sworn she was looking at the devious, cold-hearted, calculating fiend that had taken her hostage.

"I'll come with you-"

"No, Holly." They were in the foyer as Artemis flipped open his phone. He gave no further explanation to her as he waited for someone to answer the line. "Hello? Yes, I would like to book a trip to Paris for this evening – Yes, I'm aware of that – That will not be a problem – No, I will not need any assistance, thank you."

He turned to her, and Holly could see he was thinking. "I'm sorry, but you shouldn't accompany me. This is the man who helped me design most of the technology that I still use to detect fairies. He is sure to have implemented some of my work in his own designs and I'm not going to risk your discovery. It would only cause more setbacks."

"Fine, Artemis." Holly crossed her arms, watching Butler coming to join them at the door. "What am I supposed to do while you're gone?"

"Do as you wish. If Foaly comes across any leads before I do, please contact me. I should return within the day." All the teen had to do was nod to Butler as he threw on a black coat with a fur-lined hood. Holly glared evilly at the jacket before Artemis smiled. "It's imitation. I never was fond of fur, even less so now. My mother bought it for me. I will need to go shopping thanks to Jon, seeing as he ruined my brown one."

"Okay, Artemis." Holly watched as Butler threw on a jacket without questioning the teen about their activities. "Take care of yourself. You were only just healed and I know how much you want to get your brothers back, but don't hurt yourself doing it."

"Thanks to you, I'm fine. I apologize for being distracted and not thanking you sooner."

Artemis was being nice, and quite honestly, it was scaring her. "Sure thing. When this is over, we can see what's wrong with you. Foaly says it's nothing to worry about, but I want to make sure."

"I have no problem with that. There are some things that I would like to find out for myself. You said I was able to retain some of the magic after depleting it? I understand how fairies can have it returned to them, but magic isn't a human characteristic." Artemis flexed his fingers, but nothing magical occurred. "I would also like to know how the magic has changed me. It seems going for a checkup will be troublesome if it's changed my biochemistry." Artemis opened the door and walked out, letting the chilly air into the room. Holly shivered, her body still protected by the suit, if not her face. Butler followed him out silently, closing the door behind him. Holly felt, not for the first time, that things were only going to get worse from here on out. _

I have to play this game carefully, Artemis thought to himself as he left one of his only friends behind. He felt terrible about lying to her, something his conscience loved to sic upon him in recent months. There were so many things that could go wrong with his plan. He hadn't even had time to go over the details. Normally he would have had a space set aside in which to meditate and iron out any aspects with accuracy, removing any occurrences that were less then ideal. Now though, he didn't have that opportunity or even the peace of mind in which to complete his ritual.

The laptop in his hand felt too light to be carrying all the hopes he had for his makeshift plan. Time was essential though, he needed to rush or else the variety of options that he could conceive would have been obvious to Spiro as well.

"Butler." He didn't meet his old friend's stare when he felt his eyes on him. "Listen to me carefully. You'll be leaving me at the airport. I will return when I can. If you would, please leave me with a transmitter in case I need you to retrieve me."

"I wasn't planning on letting you go alone. I'll-"

"Do nothing, old friend. I have things planned for which you cannot be a part of. I will need you to trust me on this. I must get my brothers back."

"But Artemis-" Butler followed him around to the other side of the vehicle, holding the door closed so that the teen couldn't enter. Artemis' mismatched eyes watched him dully.

"I will have the transmitter. I will do nothing to it. You have my word that if I need you, I will send for you."

"You nearly died in front of me less than a day ago. I'm not going to leave your side."

"Then I will go off on my own if that's what it takes. Butler, I know you are worried about me, but some of that worry must run towards my brothers as well. You watched them grow up for three years. They must have left some impression on you."

"Of course they did." Butler removed his hand, taken aback. Artemis wasn't someone he expected to use love against him. "That doesn't mean I want anything to happen to you."

"If something were to befall me, it would harm them as well. I know what's at stake. I won't put you, or my parents, through that again."

Artemis opened the door and got in, leaving Butler no other option than to follow suit. He was worried about Artemis. It reminded him of the old comparison of the pen and the sword. Of the two, it was certainly easier to kill someone with the latter. He drew a hand across his head as he settled into the driver seat. Artemis sat next to him, staring out the window with his legs and arms cross, apprehension clear on his features.

If there was someone out there who would be able to pull this off, like he had in so many other impossible situations with nothing more than his brains and willpower, it was Artemis.

In reality, Artemis wasn't thinking much about his plans. He found the process unnecessary at this point because there was nothing else that could be acquired from it. If anything, he was trying hard _not_ to think about the situation, an impossible tasks so his mind wandered to the mediocrities of advanced physics that were taking place around him. Hormones were one thing to fight against, human nature was another. His mind calculated the velocity of the vehicle and how much gas was consumed to compensate for the friction of the tires against the pavement. As much as he cared for his brothers, Artemis found himself drawing back from the danger. It may have been the fact that he had never had to face down a gun before, never been shot. Now that knew the harsh realities of the pain, he didn't feel like experiencing them again. Only his new devotion to those he cared for kept him from running.

The code was so simple that Artemis knew Foaly would catch on quickly enough. It had taken himself only seconds to realize his destination. Since Foaly wasn't as learned on human religion as he, it would take him longer. Pion and Roi were both terms used in France in chess matches. It was effortless enough to figure out. As for the _Mary_ quip, that was even easier, seeing as Jon had taken a verse from the bible, it was fresh in his mind. To meet a Mary's was to meet in the place where Mary was, or is. The Louvre though, was a very large place and hard to find oneself in, let alone wait for someone. The last part took him the trip to the airfield to decipher. The _die by the sword_ was referring to the great conqueror, Napoleon, who always carried a sword with him. Their meeting place was none other than the Arc du Triomphe du Carrousel, which was on the outskirts of the museum.

Butler parked the van, handing over a small device that the teen himself had created. It was nothing more than a homing device, but a powerful one that bypassed any type of scanner it was put through.

"I hope you know what you're doing, Artemis."

"It's me Butler. I always know what I'm doing." Artemis closed his hand around the device. He would need it later. Plans were already forming in his head as to how he would go about the next few hours. Above all else, he couldn't let them know his intentions - Butler and Holly, or Jon Spiro. "Expect to get a single from me before nightfall. If not, don't worry yourself. I may get caught up in heaven knows what to get the information I need. If you hear nothing from me in two days, come find me."

Butler nodded as Artemis closed the door and headed for the warehouse. They had a small plane that they were keeping at the field. His own aircraft needed to be worked on before he would be able to fly it once again, so the one they had purchased years ago would have to do. During the car ride, Artemis had sent over his flight plan to the airport in Paris.

A man had already gotten the small biplane out of the garage. Artemis didn't wait, hopping into the white aircraft. His mother had bought it before his father had disappeared. They had often taken trips together. Since his disappearance and the twins' birth, the plane hadn't seen much light. The white paint had turned dark and the blue tail and nose were equally tainted with dust.

Artemis secured the laptop, lifting the wing flaps up and checking the rest of the controls. He called into the control center and then took off. Flying a plane wasn't very difficult. Even his mother had no worries when he started flying on his own when he was younger. However, the next hour and a half were going to be long.

Once the aircraft had left the ground, Artemis began to feel the full extent of his fear. Spiro himself was nothing to be scared of. All the weapons at the man's disposal seemed rather unimposing. After his previous 'adventures', it was no wonder. An angry troll, or a warped demon were just as frightening and he'd stared them down. His brothers though- Artemis knew how easy it would be fore Spiro to kill even one of them. It left him with a bargaining chip, and he only needed one. If he had so much as harmed either of them... Artemis felt his hands tightened on the steering column. He'd make sure the man paid for his foolishness. No one incites a Fowl like this without dire consequences.

Artemis left his plane at the airport in Paris. There were no smaller platforms that he knew of and he hadn't had time to search. A man was waiting for him when Artemis arrived. The genius got out and let the man do what he wished with the craft.

The entrance to the station had plenty of cabs so there was no waiting. This wasn't his first time in Paris, so Artemis ignored the scenery as he gave his destination to the driver. In less than half an hour, he was standing in front of the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, gazing in the direction of the glowing triangular museum. He sat below the center arch, ignoring the floral decorations that seemed tacky on a monument devoted to martial victory.

"Little Arty, I didn't expect you so soon."

Artemis turned, keeping a stoic expression on his face. He was sure his windblown hair was destroying the effect. "You expected nothing less. After all, I am the invited guest and this _is_ your party."

"All too true." Spiro's American mash of an accent was made all the more painful on the ears by his superior tone. "I didn't spend months planning this to have you keep me waiting."

"You have me. Let my brothers go." Artemis cut straight to the point. He hadn't time for word games or pleasantries. Had he been trying to win Spiro over, he would have done so, but the man knew what he was capable of, so it would have been an act of futility.

"I have nothing of yours, young Fowl. But if you would like to speak business with me, come to my car. We'll discuss things at my house."

Artemis held the laptop close. The tracker was in his back pocket. After letting his fingers relax, he nodded.

Spiro's smile was wide to the point of scary, much like clowns, which were the source of so many children's fears. No one with good intentions could ever be that happy.

"Wonderful." He spread his arms out and Artemis took a step back before the American wrapped him up in a hug, patting him on the shoulder. "You have no idea how long I've been waiting for this day. All my planning- but you don't need to know that. Let's go."

Several people had been watching them. Artemis ignored it, focusing on making himself follow Spiro. He'd hit the transmitter and have Butler come for him if his must, but Spiro didn't want that and neither did he. As long as the man kept his word and returned the twins, Artemis would play by his rules.

Spiro led him to a white Subaru WRX that looked more at home on a racetrack than it did the bustling Paris streets.

"You can ride up front with me. I came alone, as I'm sure you did."

"For now. If anything happens to me, I can't guarantee that it will stay that way."

"Oh, I know. That's what makes you so fun. Don't worry, Arty, I'm not going to do anything to you. Not yet. I don't destroy things I find useful and, thanks to you Artemis, I've made quite a few toys that will make me millions on the black market. If I wanted to kill you, I wouldn't even have to try." Spiro snapped his fingers to show how easy it would be. "Just like that."

"I recall it not being so easy when you tired to do it the first time around." Artemis clenched his fist. He saw how stupid it was to taunt the man as soon as the words left his mouth. Spiro opened the door, grin still in place.

"Ah, ah, ah. I see you know who's in charge of these negations. You best not make me angry or I may break my little toys before I get everything I need from them."

He had played the submissive dog for Spiro once and Artemis hadn't liked it one bit. This time, there were no back up plans, no ingenious counter-strikes that made the acting worthwhile. This time, Artemis really was at the other's mercy and it angered him to be so powerless.

Artemis took the door to the passenger seat. He was not about to sit in the back as if he were some frightened child. Getting in, Artemis acted his usual self-righteous self. There was nothing he could do at the moment except worry and that wouldn't help his plans. He was Artemis Fowl, he was no fool, and he certainly wasn't afraid of a man who had to kidnap a couple of toddlers because they were easy targets.

"There's the Arty I remember. Can't have you falling apart on me. I need you, or more accurately, your knowledge. Once I'm done fiddling around with everything you can help me create, I'll _think_ about letting you go. After all, money is everything. What's some petty revenge compared to the millions I could make off of you? Don't worry. This time, I know of a way to make sure you stay put. I can't have you escaping and ruining my plans for a second time." Spiro never stopped grinning. He seemed as eager as he was when Artemis had first shown him the c-cube a few years back. Artemis stared blankly at the scenery, focusing on nothing while Spiro turned on the radio and hummed to the beat of the songs.

Spiro pulled into the driveway of a large, three story house that bordered on the word 'mansion'. The neighbors on either side were separated by at least fifty meters and Artemis could see a garden in a spacious back yard.

"Nice place, isn't it? Of course, you'll be staying here, with me. I hardly can have my name on any large businesses anymore, thanks to you. A false name and this quiet lifestyle weren't as horrendously boring as I thought they were going to be."

Spiro opened the big wooden doors by their gold plated handles. Gold knockers with lions' heads adorned them as well. They entered into a sweeping room with a high ceiling and glass chandelier completing the tastelessly ostentatious style Spiro seemed to like. "Lovely, isn't it?"

"That is not what I've come here for." Artemis took no more than a few steps into the room. Only the doors were near him, so he couldn't be stopped from pressing the locator if he had to. "Where are my brothers?"

"It's always straight to business with you, isn't it? Well, I suppose I'll have time to show you around after we take care of the things." Spiro's smiled changed as easily as his demeanor. The false happiness he had been displaying changed to cool malevolence. Spiro steepled his fingers and turned to him. "Yes, your brothers mean so much to you, don't they? Don't think that I haven't looked into you since I've been out. Daddy went missing and you spent all the money you could just to get him back. In that time poor mommy had a nervous breakdown. It must have been so hard on you." There was no compassion is Spiro's voice. "And when I get out of jail I hear mommy got sick again and you and daddy were running all over the place to help her. Oh little Arty, don't underestimate my information network. From all this, it was easy enough to deduce that you would do anything for your brothers, especially as they are so young too. You were easy to manipulate to my will."

"Where are they? If they are injured-"

"Rest assured that I've kept good care of my guests." Spiro clapped his hands together once with as self-satisfied grin splitting his face. Out of the shadows of the great room a man stepped out, slender, instead of large and muscled like Spiro's old hires had been. The man's gait and his confidence told Artemis that he was someone to be concerned about despite his physique.

Artemis should have at least glanced at the man's face and tried to memorize his appearance for later use, but he was too focused on the three year old who was shaking in the man's arms, blindfolded and gagged.

Healthy or not, seeing his brother so vulnerable made Artemis sick to his stomach. The darker shade of the blond hair told him it was Myles and he knew how much it took to make his more rational brother upset. Clamping down on violent thoughts that would get him nowhere, Artemis folded his fingers calmly in front of him and faced Spiro.

"That's only one brother. I need both freed if you want me to cooperate with you."

"Artemis!" Myles tried to say, but failed when the gag got in the way. He may not have been able to see but he could hear perfectly well and knew the sound of his brother's voice.

"It will be fine Myles. I'm taking care of it." Artemis had to look away from his brother's scared form in order to keep his mind under control. "Back to the question at hand. Where is Beckett?"

"He's still in my care and he will remain there until I get what I need from you. I don't know what tricks you pulled on me last time but I'm going to make sure you won't be able to do anything like that again. I did say I was trading a pion. One pawn. I made no mention of the second one in my email. You didn't honestly expect me to hand over all my cards to you, now did you?"

He hadn't. Artemis knew full well that Spiro was only handing over one of his brothers but he wanted to tempt Spiro into thinking him impulsive, even if it didn't fool the man every time. That was the purpose of leaving so quickly. He made it so he wouldn't have had time to act, and Spiro would know that.

Spiro clapped his hands again and the dark hair man brought Myles over to Artemis, taking slow steps that made no sound against the marbled floor. Artemis knew that getting into a fight with this man would be beyond foolish.

Artemis held out his hands, welcoming his brother who fervently grabbed for him. He removed the blindfold so he could see he brother's dark blue eyes. There were tears in them and he took the gag out of his mouth and untied the cloth bonds that held his wrists together in front of him. Myles took him into a strangling hug when he was finished. Artemis could feel his brother's tears on his face as he held him, small choking sobs accompanying them. Myles was just a child, and as smart as he may be for his age, it made up for nothing in this situation.

"Everything will be all right." Artemis tried to pry his brother off of him, but didn't succeed. Instead, he stroked his fingers through Myles's lighter hair. Of the three of them, Artemis really was the black sheep of the family. "You'll be fine now. I need you to be a good boy and listen to me. Can you do that, Myles?"

Artemis felt a nod against his neck.

"You are going to have to release me. When I let you down, I'll give you a tracking device. I want you to go to the closest establishment and wait there. Butler should be along within the hour to bring you back to the house."

"But Ah-te-mas," Myles's words were strangled, even for his still developing speech. "Where's Beckett? I want Beckett. And I want to stay with Artemis." His brother's small fists held even tighter to the front of his coat.

"Please Myles, you have to understand. I need you to follow my instructions. It's very important. I can't get Beckett back if you don't do as I say."

Artemis stared at Myles. Eventually, the younger child looked up into his brother's eyes. He nodded, looking downcast.

"Good. When I bring Beckett back I promise we can play whatever type of experiment you want. Just for you."

"Okay." That seemed to cheer the child up. Artemis placed him on the floor, handing over the tracking chip. Artemis' eyes traveled back to Spiro. "Don't touch my brother."

"I wasn't planning on it, Arty. Why are you so distrusting? I'm getting what I want. Why would I need some bratty kid getting in the way? I know it will only make it harder to get the information I need out of you, so I wouldn't be so stupid out of pure spite."

Artemis opened the door, letting his brother have his freedom. He couldn't leave until he was sure Beckett was safe as well. There wasn't much Spiro would need from him. With what he'd already done with the limited fairy technology he had, there wasn't much he was still missing. Myles looked back at his brother, and the house he had been kept prisoner in, several times before running off down the street, gripping the homing device as if his life depended on it.

"Now," Artemis turned to Spiro. "Where are we going exactly?"

Spiro sighed. "Now, you see? This is why I wanted to show you around my lovely home before the people working for you come to tear it apart. Oh well," A shrug and an empty smile came with the words. "It couldn't be helped. We, Arty, are going to see your younger brother at my compound in Salou, Spain. If I had more time, I would have built it in Barcelona, but I figured it was right down the coastline anyway and really, what's in a name?"

Artemis appraised Spiro's new hired help now that he weren't threatening Myles. The man was in his early thirties. He had dark, milky eyes and a dark tinge to his skin that spoke of foreign blood. He had black hair swept back and tied into a loose tail, several stray pieces falling down near his ears.

"Where are my manners? Artemis, meet my new bodyguard, Mr. Nero. I'm afraid he hates it when I give out his last name, so that will have to do for now."

Artemis nodded at the man. The returning stare form Nero held neither pleasure nor annoyance at the introduction. Artemis was being watched. That was his job and that was all he had to do. Names, age, appearance - it meant nothing to this man. Artemis became more determined not to let him anywhere near Beckett.

"Come along now you two, we can't wait around here. Who knows how long it will take for Arty's little friends to get here." Spiro opened the door, beckoning them to proceed. Artemis tore his eyes off the man, feeling his every motion being watched.

They took a taxi so Spiro wouldn't need to worry about parking. It only took a conventional plane ride with a little bribing before the trio found themselves on the shores of Spain. Artemis kept in step, waiting to see something besides the tourist attractions and motels that were scattered about, to give him some idea of what he was in for. It was ironic that the pleasant sunny beach so belied the intentions of its current cruel inhabitant, hiding away the man's evil.

A large, five story building that had a similar appearance to a college was on the outskirts of the town, away from the beach, up on a leveled hill where the waves crashed ominously beneath it.

That's more like it, Artemis thought. Every criminal he had come across held some affinity for stereotypes.

The first floor was completely deserted when they entered. Spiro made his way through the building to the other end, passing locked rooms across dark paneled walls. At the end was a locked door. Spiro had only a fingerprint scanner, the same one Artemis had broken through the first time, as a safety measure.

"Downgraded, then?"

Spiro sneered at him. "No, little Arty. When you want to hide something, the best place to do it is in plain sight. As long as I'm here - and as soon as I figure out how you did it the first time - no one will be able to enter." Spiro opened the door that blocked a stair way. "After you."

Artemis shook his head, going down the steps at an even pace. There was little light to show the path, though more would have been unnecessary. The stairs spiraled down until they were in what almost looked like a lab. The main differences that Artemis noticed were the machines. He couldn't recognize what most of them were for, but they clashed. Chemical and oil smells mixed together in a deadly assault.

"Yes, it takes some getting used to. And you will get used to it." Spiro came up next to him, turning on the power to a screen mounted on the wall. "This is for your peace of mind. I will show you it once a day. Do what I ask and your brother won't be harmed."

Artemis watched as a room quickly took over the screen. There was a twin bed, a television similar to the one he was currently watching, and plenty of games to entertain a child. Beckett was sitting on the bed, tracing imaginary pictures with his finger on the wall, expression blank.

"See? Safe and sound. We'll take good care of him here. It won't endanger me for you to know that this is my, well, my main base I guess you could call it. For the past year or so, few trusted advisors and myself have been playing around with the technology I got from you. I have to admit, boy, I'd never seen anything like it. There is still so much that I'm sure we could create, if only we had the key." Artemis felt Spiro's eyes appraising him like a piece of meat.

"I appreciate the thought that went into all this. How though, did you manage to get yourself freed so quickly?"

"Oh Artemis, you have no idea how simple it was. Do you have any clue as to how many times I've gotten out of jail before? That doesn't mean I didn't have to spend six grueling months in there before my contacts went through. Had I known you tampered with my accounts, I could have been out in one, maybe two. You see now Arty, you're just a child. I-"

"What do you want? Handing over my technology is one thing, but what do you need with me?"

"To the point then, are we?"

Spiro's attack was so sudden the Artemis had only time enough to think a foul word or two before being slammed into the wall. Hands were searching his clothes and he felt a cool chill as his jacket was opened and his shirt pulled up to be held in a hand near his left ear. Cold fingers brushed against his chest and Artemis drew in a startled breath.

"Just the tiniest trace of a scar. Well, I doubt you need to wonder any longer what it is I want. The things I've been able to create because of you are a marvel, but something like this... How did you do it? Some type of cell regeneration? What?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about." A blatant lie and not even a fool would have bought it, but Artemis wasn't about to spout out words like 'magic' around Spiro. It was bad enough he had fairy technology, Artemis didn't want to even think about what the man would do if he ever acquired a fairy itself. It wasn't impossible to do. Artemis had done it once.

"My dear boy, I don't think you understand the position you're in. I'm not going to be as nice to you as I was the first time."

A damp cloth was pushed into his face and Artemis didn't have time to hold in his breath. His mind started to fog after a few seconds of inhaling the bitter sweet aroma.

"Until I get my answers, you can be me little guinea pig. Think of it as an incentive to get yourself talking. That is, if you can after I'm through with you."

How much Artemis wished at the moment that he could have spoken, would have filled up several Harvard educational manuals.


	6. One Shock After Another

Hm. Reverted to my own writing style. Sorry. I'll try and get closer to Colfer if I can  
And sorry it took a while to update

And yes, MagnusSpark, a little bit ^_^; couldn't help it

P.S. Real place(s) mentioned in here. I have NEVER been out of the US, so I am in now way supporting/discrediting them. They were simply there and I thought I'd use them for the story.

* * *

**Chapter 6: One Shock After Another**

**Dublin Airport, Ireland**

"Well Holly, there's our cue." Butler got out of the van, leaving the door open so the shielded fairy wouldn't garner attention by getting out the other side. After he'd left Artemis, he'd gone back to pick her up, and together they waited at the airport. Mulch, for his part, said he'd rather bathe with goblins than get on a plane. It would make getting to wherever they had to simple, since Butler didn't favor a moonbelt ride again. Holly had refused at first, saying her own wings were better than any mudman flying deathtrap, but she wasn't about to be separated from Butler. Worse, the human had hidden the tracking device from her and, thanks to Artemis, Foaly couldn't hack into the signal so she had to follow him to know where they were going.

Holly lifted out of the van, releasing her wings so she could hover near Butler.

"So, this is very non-Artemis. What do you think he's _really_ up to?"

Butler didn't turn to her, his mouth barely moved when he spoke. "I don't know. I'm not used to him going where I can't follow."

Holly smiled. The big man couldn't have helped on their trips through time. As it was, she and Artemis alone had gotten thrown around enough to last several lifetimes. Holly put a hand to her blue eye, making the world turn a few shades darker. The new eye had gotten her a lot of attention, though no one had said anything about it to her face.

"I might not know what he's doing, but I'm sure he has some sort of plan. Artemis always does. When he needs me, I'll be there."

Holly nodded in agreement. It took her a second to realize Butler wouldn't see it before she added, "I know."

"Can you shield yourself the whole time?"

Holly hesitated above Butler's head as people started to crowd around the big man to get to the terminal.

"I'm running pretty low. I could do it, but with the motion of the plane..." She wasn't sure she'd be able to keep her lunch, in the best of circumstances. In the worse, well, there would be a few very surprised travelers to say the least.

"It wouldn't be too hard to disguise you as a child. You'll only have to put up with it for two hours, if all goes well."

"You had this planned, didn't you?" Holly arranged it so that one of her feet accidentally hit the side of Butler's head as she cut him off. "You could have at least told me."

"I wasn't the one who planned it." Butler held out a backpack that Holly hadn't seen him put in the car. "Artemis had me get clothes for you after he was well enough to talk. I'm sure you had my room to yourself for a while. He had me go across the world to get them. I'd say he was being paranoid, but in Artemis's words, I think he'd call it being logical."

Holly had wondered where Butler had been, but she'd forgotten to find out. There _were_ cameras. Holly had to admit that showing up a child is better than showing up as some new creature if Spiro's little friends had ever caught sight of her. Holly had been forced into an oversized gym bag. It was the only concession that Butler required to allow her to come with him. Spiro was watching the house, but he couldn't keep tabs on the whole world. She'd bristled in the front seat after she had been let out, or more accurately, when she had cut through the satchel.

"Fine."

Butler suddenly found his hands empty. He looked around quickly, gauging the people around him.

"Holly, don't do that. Having things disappear without warning is a good way to get unwanted attention."

"Yes, Sir. Right, Sir. Won't do it again, Sir."

Butler knew when she was gone. He strolled through the main lobby while he waited, gravitating towards the bathrooms as he did so. He still had to watch out. Only Artemis seemed to have an idea of what Spiro was up to. There could be others out there, watching all of them.

A seven year old girl came out of the washroom fifteen minutes later, smoothing out the wrinkles that ran through a dark green vest. Butler had acquired a common brand, as anything in Artemis' tastes, even across the globe, would have attracted attention in such a small size. The shirt was a lilac purple that was bigger on Holly than she would have liked. Butler had taken a practical measure on the pants and bought ones that had a string that could be loosened or tightened at will.

"I look like a flower," Holly complained. "Couldn't you get me something more...?"

"Sorry, Artemis' orders. We don't want you standing out."

"But looking like a mudman Girl Scout isn't _blending in_ either." Holly ran her hand through the wig on her head. It hid her short, copper hair under dark brown locks, also successfully masking her all-too-obvious pointed ears. "So, how far are we going?"

"Paris."

Holly shook her head. Of course they were going the way she had just come. Hopefully no one would be looking for her yet. Not that they could find her without Foaly's equipment, but that didn't mean the centaur couldn't be talked into handing over her position. She still had her suit on under the clothes though, sadly, she had to leave the helmet in the van. That didn't mean she hadn't grabbed a transmitter in case she needed to get in contact with him.

"It always has to be somewhere heavily populated with you humans. Don't you like the countryside every now and then?"

"If they're a contact of Artemis' it goes either way. Some seclude themselves in the middle of no where so they can't be found, while others pick the populated areas, in hopes that it will give them some protection against their enemies."

"Those don't sound like the best people to have contacts with." Holly followed the big man through the airport, eyeing the security nets that were stationed throughout the building. "I thought he was done with all that."

"He is. Artemis doesn't do businesses with anyone who has gone underground because of their crimes. Most of the black market items I got with him. They've been necessary." In fact, the bodyguard's favorite weapon had been bought off of one of his old friends in Egypt and modified to less than legal standards. Artemis had promised not to commit any further crimes against the living, not to come clean.

As much as the idea intrigued him, that cocky look on Artemis' face when he bested someone had spoken more of the boy's future than anything else. Artemis wasn't someone who was above using influences to get ahead in life. Now that just meant there were new rules about not harming the people or environment to achieve those goals. It wasn't an impossible feat for someone who'd already helped save the world without anyone knowing about it.

"I hope he knows how much trouble he's caused. This is all because he was being stupid- and yes, I'm calling Artemis stupid. Spiro wasn't someone that should have been messed with to begin with. Even Foaly rang him up as a bad customer when he briefed me. All those enemies he's made in his life are going to haunt him."

"I know. Artemis does to. There's nothing either of us can do about it except deal with the results when they come."

Butler's voice sounded sad, though it was hard to tell since his expression was anything but. Holly regretted bring up the past. She knew that Butler blamed himself for more than he should. Any wrong doing Artemis had gotten himself into had fallen on the bodyguard's shoulders, though Butler had had no say in the sequence of events that followed. For Artemis, Holly had seen years ago that regret start to surface. As much of a conscience as he had now, it wasn't good enough. He'd lied to her. Lied to everyone. Opal had come back, gotten a chance to ruin everything all over again. The person who had killed Julius had come back, and it was all because Artemis thought he knew what was best for everyone. She'd have to give the teen a piece of her mind when they met up, after she complained about the plane ride, that is.

They didn't have to wait. They didn't even have to go through customs, instead taking a path used for crew members. There, Butler met with a man and they chatted like old friends. Holly watched on, introduced as his niece. They had some conversation of her parents not being nearby, so he couldn't get her a passport. The other man, somewhere in his thirties who clearly looked up to Butler, smiled and told him not to worry about it. Just like that, they were given two seats on the next flight out.

"You have your fair share of contacts too."

"I need to. Artemis needs them and, even if he wasn't the one I was assigned to, it's basic 101 to make sure your net is spread out as far as you can in my line of work."

Holly had to admit it would have been hard if Butler _hadn't _known the man. She wouldn't have been able to get on the plane to say the least. Secondly, they would have been put in the registry. Caution was crucial and any record would have made them easy to pinpoint. That thought made Holly frown.

"Butler, if he was watching, wouldn't Spiro have noticed that Artemis took the plane?" It wasn't an airline seat, but it would be traceable, especially because he'd taken it from a hanger lodging instead of the one on the property.

"It's had me worried." Butler's eyes shone bright with anxiety as they made their way onto the platform. "I hadn't thought about it until after he left. By then it was too late. The locator chip only works when it's activated."

"So he's what? Playing bait?" Holly hurried along as Butler's apprehension rushed his footsteps.

"That or he figured out the riddle."

Holly felt her heart stop. Artemis wouldn't act on his own. He wouldn't lie to her when she had asked him, straight out, what he was doing.

D'Arvit. Of course he would. As nice as Artemis was becoming, it only seemed to make the Irish teen act more foolishly. Before, when Holly had been in danger, he'd watched her, unsure of what actions to take. Then he'd started to try and take on some of the burden that most of their _save the world_ journeys had put on them. It was a shame that his attempts had left him, or others, hurt. Now it seemed that he reverted to the obnoxious brat she couldn't stand from five years ago, who liked to do everything by his own calculations.

"He'd better be there. If he's not, he'll have more than Jon Spiro to worry about." Holly clenched her fist. She was sick of being lied to and manipulated by someone she would like to, under different circumstances, call a friend.

"I agree." She felt the anger in Butler as well. She ascended the flight of steps up to the plane and ignored the mudmen around her as she thought of all the horrible things she would do to Artemis when she got her hands on him. She wasn't putty to mold into whatever shape Artemis found useful.

Butler's acquaintance could only get them coach seats, but they were near the window and the elf took the spot before Butler had a chance to take in more than a breath and offer it to her. Bad enough that she was in a human flying machine, bad enough she was being controlled again, but Holly was not going to sit next to a stranger while it was all happening.

It took half an hour for the rest of the plane to fill up. Holly brooded, leaving Butler to stare at a folded-up device in his hand and read the broadcast from of the transmitter. It looked like nothing more than a pocketbook and, for a second, she had to admire Artemis' work.

The plane ride itself wasn't as uncomfortable as she thought it would be. She'd never been in a human made aircraft before, but they were better than the shuttle pods - for those who weren't adrenaline jockeys, that is. For Holly, it was nothing but a few hours of boredom. She was sure she'd fallen asleep at one point, since the two hour trip felt like forty five minutes to her. If she had, she wouldn't admit it, and Butler hadn't woken her up.

Departing wasn't nearly as easy as boarding. There were a lot of tourist at the terminal and they were constantly shoving everyone aside. Butler and the locals were set apart by their silent disapproval of the chaos. Holly was also able to take care of herself in the press of bodies and, with both their training they were able to stay together.

"You'd think the world was ending."

Butler nodded, shoving aside a less-than-sober man who was weaving into their path. The blond glared at them through inebriated eyes, debating whether or not to start a fight. When Butler glared back at him, the man backed off as if he'd been struck, stumbling into other patrons in a rush to get away.

Holly admired that innate talent of Butler's that allowed him to clear a room without a word. Reputation could only get you so far and Holly knew her physique wasn't enough to frighten anyone into submission.

With Butler leading the way it wasn't long before they were out of the airport. Something about the sheer number of people the bodyguard knew was disturbing. A pale man with formal attire and slicked back, black hair was working at the rental car portion of the airport. They shared one look before the man was smiling and running around the counter to shake hands.

"Been a while, Butler. I was wondering when I'd see you again."

"Nice to see you too, Jason. I'm afraid I'm not here on a pleasure trip though. I need a car."

"You rarely are, are you? I hope to meet with you again for lunch sometime when you're free. You don't want to neglect old friendships. About the car, I'll have one ready for you in a minute. What kind would you like?"

"Any."

"Right. One blacked-colored vehicle with tinted back windows." The skinny man laughed; seemingly unfazed by the specification that he knew Butler wanted, without having to have them told to him. "You can wait outside. I'll go get it for you personally."

The man left the desk, sparing no time as he went through the back door and got a car for them to use. He never once looked at, nor spoke, to Holly. That was the way some people were. Best not to know what was going on and Butler, with an apparent young girl, qualified under something he need not to know about.

A black Mercedes was pulled up. Holly examined it. It was a nice car and one that wouldn't stand out too much on the road. Perfect for what they were looking for.

"Thank you, Jason." As Butler took the keys he palmed over two hundred dollars. "It will come back undamaged."

"I trust you." Jason walked away confidently, happy with the easy money. Holly hopped into the front seat of the car, Butler getting in at a slower pace with the cameras watching him.

"Afraid they're gonna think you're stealing it?" Holly raised an eyebrow.

"They might. We're not here to bring attention to ourselves." Butler didn't bother with a seat belt and neither did Holly. Trapping themselves inside wouldn't do a lot of good if there was danger.

After half hour of driving, Holly decided that she disliked human machines more than ever. She had her window opened fully, feeling the air rush across her skin, but it didn't satisfy her. She was about to ask when they were going to be there when Butler pulled over.

Holly looked around before getting out, eyeing the white walled buildings on either side of her. They were parked next to a shop with a white awning coming out the front. The neighborhood looked so quiet that Holly doubted that there was anything wrong at all. The tables outside, two of them seating groups of happy customers, made it all the more inviting.

The restaurant's name, _Le Réfectoire_, was printed in the far corner of the out cropping with soft, rainbow colored letters.

"This doesn't look like a place Artemis would want to go."

"That's the outside. It's the food and service that counts. I've never been here before, and neither has he, so I'd have to guess this was someone else's doing, or Artemis is laying low."

"Yeah right. Artemis' idea of 'laying low' is finding a nice expensive hotel to relax and play Risk in the lounge."

Butler let out a quiet laugh. That made Holly smile. It was funny how easy it was to picture that scenario. Of course, the irony of the goal of that game didn't go unnoticed by either occupant.

"So, what? Do you think it could be a trap?"

"I wouldn't doubt it. Though, it's bothering me that it's a restaurant, and a family one at that. Spiro isn't someone who would pull the same trick twice. Maybe if it had been a closer resemblance to the one in London, but not like this."

"So you _don't_ think it's a trap?"

"I don't know." Butler scanned the area. Something he'd already done several times while they had been talking, waiting to see if anything changed. "It doesn't seem it but I've been wrong before."

Holly sighed. "I was asking if we were going in or not. Waiting isn't getting us anywhere."

"I was hoping that he would come out." Butler watched the tracking device as it remained stationary somewhere inside the glass door. The signal had moved there when they had pulled up and retreated back inside, no longer moving. "Guess we go in."

Holly was prepared, her weapon hidden snugly inside of the vest. She found it distasteful, but it had enough pockets to keep her happy and it masked her frame to resemble a human child.

She waited on the other side of the car until Butler came around. They both nodded to one another and walked in. Holly was smiling, trying her best to appear a happy girl on vacation, while Butler didn't have to do much. A smile on his face would probably just scare the other customers.

The inside held a warmth that calmed them both unconsciously when they walked in. There were lights everywhere and yellow tinted walls with creative decorations on them. The chairs were a soft tomato color that completed the pleasant atmosphere.

Neither of them spotted the dark-haired teen among the handful of customers.

"It's under the table over there." Butler inclined his head slowly to point out the direction the signal was coming from. "It was moving a few minutes before, so I have to guess it was left there not long ago."

"Why would he see us and run away?"

"I don't know."

Something moved from off to her right, running towards her. Holly was used to taking on creatures her own size and had her hand reaching for her blaster before Butler's large arm came and pushed her away.

A mess of dark blond hair huddled into his arms as he bent down. Holly blinked, confused.

A small face poked out, eyes red and face flushed to show that the child had obviously been crying for some time now. She had no idea what was going on, but something clicked as the boy turned to face her, afraid.

He had ice blue eyes, almost the same shade as Artemis, though the boy's were slightly darker and closer to Angeline's shade.

"Myles" Butler added, giving Holly the name of the twin currently in their care. Holly hadn't seen the twins, though she'd heard of them. A photograph at the house wasn't much to identify the boy by. His appearance was closer to average than Holly would have believed a brother of Artemis would possess. "Myles, what happened? How'd you get here?"

_Where's Artemis?_ Holly knew Butler wanted to add, but one step at a time. The boy was young and obviously distraught.

Myles shook his head, more tears coming as he buried his face in Butler's dark coat. Neither of them needed any further explanation.

"Foaly," Holly spoke to herself, knowing that it would reach the centaur through the mike on her throat. "Forget the riddle. Spiro won. New priority, we have to find Artemis and we have to find him _now_."

* * *

**Off the Coast of Salou**

Artemis's first sensations upon waking weren't promising. His arm hurt. Badly. The headache that he'd been carrying around with him also seemed to have doubled in strength

"Ah, little Arty, I see you're waking up. You took so long, that I thought I'd test a few other things I'd been working on. I do hope none of them have... damaged you. I certainly would be rather disappointed to have to lose you so quickly."

Artemis shut out the man's voice, as it was only making the headache more troublesome to deal with. First thing, he had to figure out what had happened. Thinking was a painful process, and the bright light that assaulted his eyes made it impossible, so a new approach was necessary. There was something metal under his fingertips. It felt as if he were sitting in a chair, normal enough. What Artemis discovered was less than normal was that he was strapped down to it by his ankles, wrists, and across his chest.

"Now, now, Arty, be a good boy and open your eyes." There were fingers against Artemis's face, drawing his eyelids apart without his consent. He tried to draw back, the chair hindering him, as the light cause hot flashes of pain to rush through his head. "Oh, light sensitive. Do forgive me, I didn't realize." Spiro didn't _sound_ sorry about it, but Artemis let it go. "Hmm, that will make this peculiar product hard to sell if I can't fix it. Maybe I'll be able to get your help on it, in a few hours when your eyes are back to normal, of course."

"And what effect were you intending to generate with whatever it was you gave me?" Artemis found his voice coming out hoarse. He was not at all pleased with any of the new developments.

"Don't worry. Whatever unpleasantness you're feeling is just a side effect of the chloroform, dear boy, nothing else. As for the serum I administered to you, yes, it seems to make your eyes light sensitive. I doubt it went further than that. I was intending to come up with my own cellular reproduction to see if I could imitate what you came up with. As unsuccessful as it was, I'm happy that I got to make my mark on you, at least."

Artemis didn't want to feel foolish by asking what Spiro meant by his words. He had a guess, as his arm seemed to hurt more as he moved it. How badly it was injured, Artemis couldn't be sure. He wasn't used to gauging pain.

"My revenge on you must take a back seat to my research, for now. I may have gotten carried away when I saw how advanced your own workings were. I hate failure. I'll have to put developments on hold until you tell me your secrets. But enough of that for now, I do believe it's time for me to eat lunch. Oh right," Artemis felt John's fingers on his face again, still not able to open his eyes far enough to see anything without making him want to fall unconscious again. "You must be hungry too. Mr. Nero will give you some food, I suggest you eat it. Starving will do neither of us good."

Artemis listened to the man's footsteps to make sure he wasn't still hovering nearby. A new, lighter, set of footsteps echoed around somewhere behind him. Patterns quickly dissolved as pain receptors in his skull screamed at him to stop try to analyze. He heard Jon utter a dispassionate 'thanks' before Artemis felt someone's presence at his side.

Eating Spiro's food seemed safe enough, but eating it out of someone's hand, as Artemis quickly discovered the American wanted him to do, was too degrading to even consider.

"Come on boy, if you don't eat, how will you be able to assist me? If you prove to be of no use to me, your little brother won't be in such good health. Benefits, Arty. I don't do anything if I don't get something much better in return for my efforts."

Artemis felt a cold current run through his body. At the moment, he was as powerless as he had ever been. At least the mesmerizer had restrained him mentally, so he wasn't able to think about all the faults that lie with him while he was under another's control. For now, he'd have to play by Spiro's rules.

Hesitatingly, Artemis tried to slit open his eyes. It was very difficult. His sensitivity to light was genetic, though Holly's eye had made his world an interesting new flavor of color. That eye he was able to open further, though not by much. There was a light on him from somewhere close by, which was causing the blindness. The dark shapes righted themselves and Artemis had to fight against the headache to scan the room. He dearly wished to sleep as the pain was trying to knock him out, but he forced himself awake.

Artemis saw that a sandwich was being presented to him. His vision wouldn't focus clearly, so he couldn't see the man's expression. He had to imagine there wasn't one. Spiro had picked a decent bodyguard this time, mind as well as muscle.

Starving himself was not the way to go about bringing Spiro's downfall. He had to find what fairy technology had been manipulated first. Jail obviously didn't do the man any good. He'd have to be mindwiped, and the fairies were already at the end of their rope dealing with Artemis. Spiro could detect them now, even if he had no idea of their presence. Any rushed unit would end up being captured and studied, and Artemis didn't want to imagine what the cold-blooded man would do after that. Sure, Artemis had kidnapped Holly that one time, but he had never harmed her, never thought of running tests on her or the like. Every time Artemis moved his arm, he could feel the pain. Spiro didn't have any such reservations.

That didn't mean that he avoided movement. He felt an internal clamoring that demanded that he defy the pain, and more importantly, defy Spiro. He needed to prove that Spiro did not rule Artemis Fowl. Opal had put a gun to his head and he hadn't flinched, outwardly at least. The American was nothing to fear.

Spiro must have been watching him, though Artemis couldn't see clearly. Most of the world still consisting of gelatinous orbs that didn't follow the flow of physics and they played havoc on his thought process.

"My boy, I still don't think you're afraid of me, are you?"

"Of course not." It took a split second for Artemis to realize that those were the wrong words to say. If he thought his headache was bothering him before, a whole new variety of pain shot through his nerve endings. He felt his breath halt in some vain attempt not to scream. Had he succeeded, it may have been worth the effort, but the only thing it accomplished was losing the air he did have. It also kept him from being able to draw any in afterwards. The pain lasted seconds but at the level it was at, it was intense enough to be unbearable. He panted, feeling his limbs shake in the restraints after the last shock had faded. It didn't take him long to realize what had transpired.

"Metal chair." Artemis had to stop to catch his breath, smiling to himself. "Nice touch."

"It does help the electricity flow, and I'd hate it if I burned you badly enough to, again, make you of no use to me. This way I keep my prize in tact and, so long as you don't continue to displease me, you won't lose more than some of that annoying self-confidence of yours and a brain cell or two."

Artemis was no fool. His breathing still came out ragged as he tried to control it and steady himself. Electrocution would do more than destroy a brain cell or two. He'd be lucky if he didn't end up with physical trauma if it continued.

And, if he was being honest with himself, it hurt more than he ever wanted to experience again. He'd never understood those toys he'd seen that shocked the unsuspecting victim if they chanced to touch it. Likewise, Artemis was a firm advocate of illegalizing shock treatment in the medical community. Anything that diminished a person's ability to think was something he was vehemently opposed to. He'd also been opposing the cruel treatment of animals since Jayjay saved his mother's life. There were some things you just shouldn't do. Electrocuting someone to prove your point was definitely now at the top of Artemis's list.

For a brief flash, not nearly as long as his first dose, Artemis was able to feel the shock run across his body long enough to stop his heart in the second it ran through his cardiac muscle. Spiro laughed, watching Artemis try to draw in on himself. Anything to get out of contact with the chair.

"You see, you do things my way, or you make this hard on the both of us and neither one of us gets what we want. All I need is for you to listen to me. I might not even keep you that long—a month or two if things go well. As for you, you want your brother freed. As long as you follow my orders, everything will work out smoothly. Now, I thought I told you that you should eat something. I've even had Mr. Nero provide you with the food."

Artemis shook his head. Everything was hurting. As much as the shock had been painful, its absence was just as bad, if not worse. His head was killing him. The blotches that had once been shapes were nothing but angry burns against his eyelids. No snide remarks came to him, not that he would have been able to vocalize one even if it had. The world spun for a few nauseating seconds before he passed out.


	7. I Hate Waiting

**Chapter 7: I Hate Waiting**

"Hey!"

Someone slapped Artemis hard across the face, the burning feeling waking some of his abused senses. He tried to open his eyes, but it was no use.

"I may have set it a little high, but not enough to knock you out. Mess with me and I promise you that things will only get worse."

Spiro's voice, even as threatening as it sounded, wasn't enough to snap Artemis back to the real world. There was too much pain there. Even at the edge of consciousness, he could feel the headache he hadn't been able to shake for days now. A part of him knew that pain that was this chronic was unusual. Another part of him was screaming at the first part to shut up and let him get some rest. He hadn't slept well. Not that lying to Holly had been all that hard, but he did feel bad about it. Truth be told, he'd only gotten an hour or so after he'd returned upstairs after waking from the healing. His body may have wanted to sleep, but he'd been too worried about what was happening for anything close to a peaceful rest to come over him. But Holly believed him so easily, even with the many reasons he'd already given her not to.

"You know I could do the same thing to your brother, don't you? Which one do I have anyway? I never really did take the time to learn their names. Whichever it is, I'm sure _they_ wouldn't like me using them to suit my needs since their _precious brother_ was too scared to even open his eyes."

Even the taunting couldn't make the impossible possible. Moving may have been out of the question, but Artemis' willpower at least gave him the ability to speak—or at least retort.

"Don't you dare."

As feeble as his voice must have sounded, Artemis wasn't worried about that. Sure every last inch of him was hurting, but the whole purpose behind this had yet to be achieved. He and Beckett were still prisoners.

"You're not fooling around, are you?" Fingers were laced across his face but Artemis was too far gone to see more than grey when his eyelids were forced opened. As powerless as he was, something had started to burn inside him and it wasn't something that was a result of the pain. He would not be used like this. His brother wouldn't be threatened while he was trying his best to comply with the demands set upon him.

"What was that?" Spiro's voice broke Artemis's concentration, sending him back into a state closer to sleeping than waking.

"Something broke." It was the first time that Artemis heard the other man speak. The information was there, maybe a Sichuan accent. He tired to categorize it further, but Nero didn't speak again. As intrigued as he was about the man's heritage, sleep was quickly falling on the teen once again, smearing his logical thoughts into the less rational ones of dreams. He didn't awake again for some time.

Something pricked his arm.

Artemis's first thoughts didn't follow their usual cascade. He wasn't used to waking up and not being in control of his own body. He tried to pull away from whatever it was that was in contact with the exposes blood vessels in the crook of his arm, but a firm hand held him in place.

"It's a sedative boy. Can't have you fighting me while I look into this. I must say, you did quite a job on yourself. There are anomalies in your bloodstream that even I can't isolate. I'm very interested to hear about all this, when you're conscious of course. Anything I get from you full of morphine will likely be inconstant or just delirious."

He was being drugged, but there was nothing Artemis could do about it. The headache was already being blissfully ignored by his senses as the drugs numbed him to the realization that he was, in fact, in discomfort.

"What happened?" Not fully aware that he'd asked it out loud, Artemis tried to look around. He wasn't in the lab anymore, he was sure of that. His eyes were back in working order and there was no pain to stop him from searching this time. The room looked much the same as any other in a typical household. The difference was that only thing in the room was the bed which he was currently lying on, walls and carpeting. It was bare of the normal commodities.

"If I knew what happened I'd be working to rectify it. Whatever you did to yourself has obviously put strain on your heart. I didn't mean to, but it seems I unintentionally gave you a stroke that last time."

_What?_ Artemis glared at Spiro. He must have been hearing him wrong. It wasn't unheard of for a young person to have a stroke, but Artemis had none of the risk factors associated with it.

Spiro grinned. "I'm not lying to you. There'd be no point. You're lucky that I had the equipment here to help you or you may have died, or worst yet, I may have done what I was afraid of and made you useless to me. Travis, luckily for him, is also a medical professor. Of course, I never introduced you two, so you'd hardly know what I was talking about, even if you were hearing what I'm saying."

"I can hear you perfectly." Artemis stared down his arm at the thin tubing that ran up to an IV, most likely giving him fluids. If he'd had a stroke, it may have mentally handicapped him in ways he was not yet noticing. He pensively went over every fact and figure he could in Physics, Astronomy, and Gnomish. Those there were the most obscure and difficult, so if there had been any damage, it would have likely struck there.

"You were seen to as soon as I realized something had gone... wrong. I'm sure that there wasn't much damage done. Now then, I'll see you in twenty four hours, since Travis says that is the time when you should be functioning again. Night, night."

Spiro crossed the room and flipped a light switch, plunging the area around him into darkness. Not even a crack of light showed through the doorframe.

Artemis was grinning, though there was no one to see it. The room was obviously made to be his resting place anyway. There was no way that Spiro was going to put a camera in here, even one of his new ones, incase Artemis found a way to mess with it like he had the last time and slipped out before Spiro knew what was going on.

This was what he'd been wanting ever since he'd first known who his enemy was. Time to think. First thing, he had to mentally evaluate himself. This was going to be difficult, considering that if his mind had been damaged, he wouldn't be able to notice the difference. After that was done, he had some planning to do. Things had already been set in motion and now Artemis needed to make sure that everything was going according to plan.

He took out a small strip from where he'd hidden it, invisible, behind his ear, no bigger than a flattened bottle top.

"Hello. Sorry to keep you waiting."

* * *

**Orly Airport Terminal, Paris**

Holly and Myles stared each other down across the table. They didn't like each other. The moment that Myles was let out of Butler's hug, he had turned on Holly the way a mongoose turns on a viper. Holly had returned the hostility. Butler sighed, resting a hand on both their shoulders.

"Myles, you have to go back home. Holly, you have to take him. He can't stay here, where there's nobody to watch him. It's dangerous."

Both of them, not even a third his height and even less than that amount in muscle, stared Butler down the way no one else dared. Neither wanted to leave.

"I'm not going anywhere. Artemis could still be nearby and even if he's not, I'm not about to be left behind if Foaly finds out where he is."

"I want Artemis." Myles folded his little fingers around the table, refusing to be moved. "You is not making me leave!"

"Myles, you're only three-"

"Four! I'm four in two months!" The boy shoved his fingers angrily at Butler, demanding some respect for being one year older, though not enough years to have his opinion taken seriously. "And Beckett too! I want them both. Now!"

"It doesn't work that way. You have to go home and we'll take-"

"No! No! NO! I'm not gonna go! You can't make me!"

"Holly can make you."

"She's little too and you are letting her stay! You're nothing but a duffus. I want to stay too!"

"Myles, manners." Butler's scolding held no reprimand to it. It was an automatic response for when a child talks inappropriately to an adult. Butler had never had to put up with it while Artemis was growing up, seeing as the boy had never articulated any of his less-than-pleasant comments in the subject's vicinity. "You can't stay. If there's trouble then Holly or I would have to take the time to protect you, and that could be dangerous. Do you understand?"

Myles didn't relinquish his hold on the table but Holly saw the tears start up on the edge of his eyelids. He was angry enough to hold them back. "I don't care!"

"Hey, Myles." Holly was afraid to talk to him incase she riled him up even more, but nothing Butler said was getting through to him anyway. "What if one of us, or Artemis, gets hurt trying to get you out of danger. You wouldn't like that, would you?"

Myles frowned, shaking his head quickly enough to make him dizzy.

"Then go home so that no one has to worry about whether you're safe or not. It will make it easier."

"I can help." The boy was desperate to stay, and Holly could see it. She felt for him, but he was too young and inexperienced to be of any real assistance.

"I know you think you can, but we have a job to do here. We need to rescue your brothers, both of them, and knowing how to play hopscotch won't help."

Before she knew what was going on, the boy had gotten up and dashed out of the lunch-in they'd been sitting in. Butler was on his feet and out the door before Holly had a chance to get out of her seat.

She ran into the big man, literally, when he turned the corner.

There was no way a three year old child could have outrun either of them. That was, unless he'd run into the chaos of the airport terminal, was small enough to run through the crowds and was camouflaged. Great.

"Holly." Butlers tone was harsh and she flinched, letting her eyes continue to wander the crowd instead of look up at him. "That was uncalled for. You could see how responsible Myles felt."

"But it was the truth. You couldn't keep lying to the kid."

"He's three years old Holly. I think a few more years of being _lied_ to would have been normal."

Holly had to admit that this time she was the one in the wrong. Myles reacted to the situation the same way she would have, by running off to attack the problem herself. The boy didn't have the same means that Holly had, so unlike her, he wouldn't be able to accomplish anything on his own. Eventually security or a concerned guest would find him, or he'd come back on he own, realizing he had no money and no idea what he was doing.

That was, if he'd been a bit older. Myles was at the young age where he thought that everything was possible. Fantasy, reality, it didn't matter which was which to a child.

"I'll go look for him my way." Holly ran back into the cafe, sliding into the bathroom and sliding back out before the door closed, this time shielded. The clothes were annoying and she had to take the vest and shirt off so that she was able to use the wings. Holly opened Butler's travel bag as she passed him, and placed them inside.

Holly didn't have time to enjoy the freedom of flying again as she was too busy looking for Myles. If he'd had any distinguishing characteristics, it might have been possible. As it was, every mudman passing her had almost the same shade of hair, though the color range was impressive, and the pressed in bodies made it hard to take a birds-eye-view.

They searched for over an hour, having nothing to do even if they weren't looking for the boy. Neither of them noticed a short man with dark colored clothes take Myles forcefully by the hand and drag him away.

_Myles watched his new companion with interest. There was something... off about him. The folded up card in his hand was hidden now and Myles didn't feel as confidant as he had when the stranger had first approached him._

_Raising a hand to his lips, the stranger handed over something that Myles recognized, though he'd never used one before._

_A smile lit up his face and the boy held his hands to his mouth to keep from giggling. The stranger smiled at him too, revealing another card that had the laughter falling away to be met with confusion. _

_"You want me to what?" Myles dared to ask aloud. The stranger nodded, placing the card in his pocket and walking away. Myles followed him to a small closet in the back, where there was a fire hose nearby. _

_The stranger handed him something before turning on a water spout and freezing the child, closing Myles in the darkness of the room._

"I'm so sorry Butler. I didn't know he would run off like that." Holly bowed her head, ashamed at herself. It had been awhile since she'd been around kids, but that didn't justify her actions. She knew how bad it felt to be left out of something.

Butler clutched his phone. He'd called several people he knew in the area to keep an eye out for Myles. It was unlikely that he'd stay in the terminal, so Butler thought it was better to spread the word around than run on a wild goose chase.

"It's fine. He'll show up. I've called his parents. They'll come here and do the searching so that we can find Artemis. They still don't know what's going on and I don't know how much longer I can keep lying to them. So much has happened already. Angeline already knows about the fairies. The only reason I'm not saying anything now is to keep them from worrying."

"Which they'll do anyway."

Butler sighed. He was getting too old for this. Artemis' mischief making days were supposed to be over. They were supposed to stay at the manor, maybe a quick trip or two around the world every once in a while. They were supposed to be a normal family. But then again, when had Artemis, when had any Fowl, been normal?

"Did Foaly pick anything up?"

"Actually." Holly tore her gaze away from the floor in front of her. "He did."

"What?" Butler clenched his fist, saving it for Spiro. "And why didn't you tell me?"

"He thinks it might be a trap and, like it or not, both of us are too emotional right now to think things through. He won't even tell me where Artemis is. The only thing he's saying is that Artemis had brought a laptop with him when he left, and Foaly had his bugs in the computer already, so he was able to pinpoint its location."

Butler did remember Artemis leaving with a small laptop. There were millions of signals all over the world and, if not for Foaly, they wouldn't have been able to track it with the power turned off. As paranoid as he was though, Butler couldn't believe that Spiro had kept it.

"Yeah, it probably is a trap. So what are we waiting for?" Butler was ready. He'd take on whatever the egotistical manic, who thought he could take his principle from under his nose, had arranged and make sure the man never saw the light of day again.

"We're waiting for Foaly to see that keeping the information from us is going to get us nowhere. I'm ready when you are." Holly winked at him. "Let's storm the gates."

"Is there any way I can talk to him too?"

"The car. Let's go back. My helmet has a projection screen."

They both headed back to the unassuming black vehicle. It was a few years out of date, but the outside was clean and the inside smelled like it was fresh out of the factory. Holly jumped in the back seat and grabbed her helmet from where she'd thrown it so that no one from the outside would see it. She turned it towards her and disconnected her mike and ear piece.

"Okay, Foaly" she muttered as Butler closed the door and wedged himself into the backseat with her. "Spill."

"Holly, you running into danger head first is common enough, but don't you think this might be one of those times where you should think things through? What good is it if you get caught? He knows nothing about us and, even with Artemis's assumptions, has yet to prove that he's a danger to the people."

"So we'll only act after it's too late to stop anything and Artemis is dead. Real nice Foaly."

"Holly" They heard Foaly stomp his hooves on the other end in an uncomfortable manner. His face on the screen of the helmet was more dead set than his body. "This isn't just about you or Artemis. This is about all of us. We can't go risking ourselves to save him. Don't you understand that?"

"Of course I do! I understand that you're scared but I can do this Foaly. When have I ever failed the People?"

"I know how you feel, trust me, I do. I don't want to see Artemis hurt either. He's a callous, stuck-up, know-it-all, but a friend. You have to see that there are more important things going on and, Holly, Haven needs you too."

"Please, Foaly," Holly met his digital eyes that looked all too real. If the centaur couldn't produce what Spiro was able to manufacture, Haven wouldn't have much longer than Artemis. "I can't walk away from this."

Foaly let out a deep sigh. "Fine Holly, but I'm not covering for you anymore. This is on your shoulders now if we get caught. Don't get mad at me if they decommission you again."

"I won't." Holly knew Foaly would continue to watch her back for as long as he could, but she was pushing her luck.

"You're going to have to get back in that airport. The signal's been coming from a city on the coast of Spain. I don't know if it's a trap or not, but this seems too easy."

"Human technology can't trace a powered down computer," Holly reminded him.

"Yeah, and mine couldn't either if I hadn't been bugging everything Fowl touched. That doesn't mean that Spiro's going to believe that it's true. After you told me where you were, the riddle was easy as a dwarf clearing a room. That doesn't mean this particular mudman isn't dangerous. He lured Artemis out without us even noticing."

"Because he had leverage, we all know-"

"And," Foaly cut her off, continuing, "he'll see you both coming a mile way. Don't go rushing in there. We have to plan this. I'll help you as much as I can, but everyone's been on my back for the last few hours, asking where you are. I don't know when they'll cut me off."

"That's fine Foaly, now where in Spain are we going?"

She was forced onto an airplane once again but Holly didn't complain. She'd been the reason they had lost Myles. Chances were that the boy was perfectly safe and his parents would find him by the end of the day, but that didn't keep her from worrying.

The trip to Spain took nearly two hours and Holly couldn't find sleep this time. Never had she walked into anything that was so obviously a trap before.

"So, I know I said let's barge in there, but we're not really going to do that..." Holly hesitated. "Are we?"

"We'll see how security is. If he's had his eyes on the manor this whole time, I'm sure his home base is covered as well. These bugs—Foaly can't disrupt them, can he?"

"Maybe if he had a sample, sure. As is stands right now, not a chance."

Butler didn't say anything. His gun was packed away in a slot that went undetected through the gates, but his hand reached to his side where he normally kept it. Holly watched, reaching for her own weapon. If they were able to get through the guard, then blasting their way in wasn't impossible. Her Neutrino set to its highest level should cut through any of the security gates, as long as they weren't worried about subtlety.

"You know he'll just take Artemis hostage if we do that."

"Yes," Butler's eyes gleamed, "which is why we'll be going in there alone. You don't have to ask permission to enter this time, so you can enter while you're shielded."

"And he can pick me up on his cameras." Holly cocked her head. "So what difference does it make?"

"You won't be going in with me; you'll be going in _before_ me. If he picks you up, I'll come in right after. Once you're close, I'll get in myself, by force if I have to. That way he'll be focused on me and not you. I can't think of a better plan and, as much as I trust Artemis, this is something he can't do alone, no matter how much he wishes he could."

It wasn't much of a plan, and as far as good ones went, it didn't even make the bottom of the list, but Holly had no better ideas. Spiro wasn't looking for her. His cameras could pick up on her, but only if he'd kept the filter on the iris cam. If he'd messed with it, she'd be just as invisible to his surveillance as she was to the naked eye. That is unless he froze the image, but that was unlikely.

And if it didn't work, there'd be plenty of opportunity for damage control after she was done.

Holly settled into the seat, nerves still on edge. At least with her wings, she felt like she was getting somewhere. The clouds outside the plane window couldn't seem to move fast enough.

Holly had seen the enough of the world and especially Europe. Spain was nothing new to her and she ignored those around her when they exited the aircraft. Another trip to the rental place ensued. Butler hadn't traveled to this part of Spain much, so he wasn't acquainted with any of the workers. That being said, he got a dark grey family van, for the sake of a made up story line involving Holly and a family gathering. The trip was much shorter this time and they arrived at a string of human dwellings, scattered along the coastline. Holly was impressed by the grandeur of the place. The houses looked nice, the people seemed friendly, and the weather itself was wonderful as the sparkling blue waves reached up in an attempt to play with the residents walking across the shoreline.

"This is where the signal on Artemis's computer is coming from. Are you sure he didn't get away from Spiro after Myles left and he hid out here?"

Butler frowned, the thought not having crossed his mind. It vanished quickly. "No. If he had the computer on him, he would have contacted me."

"Unless it broke or life got in the way. Maybe Spiro had a way of finding him if he turned it on, what with these new tracing bugs he's developed. When they met, Spiro may have checked Artemis and confiscated anything he was holding. There's a chance that he could be here and fine, or that he got away and Spiro still has the computer."

They both wanted to believe that that was true, but neither did. Even Holly let the small chance fade away. Artemis would have found some way to contact them, even if he couldn't have used the computer or phone, with the chance of it being tracked back to his location.

Butler stopped the car at an inn. He sat back against the seat, craning to see a house up the hill in front of them. Holly quickly took the word back, as it looked more like a school than it did a house. In fact, it looked like a school and a house had mated and this structure was the result.

"Looks pretty well guarded to me. Here." Holly handed over a spare headset and mike. "I'll go in first then. You follow me. I'll let you know if there's any danger but don't expect a walk-through." Holly put on her helmet. It would mask her breathing from any whisper-quiet sensors, though she didn't want to risk speaking. Foaly said that any noise vibrations couldn't make it past the interior, but she wasn't going to chance it.

"I'm with you, Holly." She heard Foaly typing away at his keyboard. "I won't touch the system. If he notices any fluxuations in it, it might cause more problems than it would solve. Even a second is too long this time. If you can though, I'd like to see how far he's gotten with our little gift to him. Knowing humans, he's probably mutilated my superior invention into something even my grandmother would laugh at."

"Because we're all laughing at that nanobot of his, aren't we?"

That shut the centaur up faster than anything else she could have said. Foaly had been bested and he knew it. If it had been Artemis who had done it, maybe he could have continued to go on about his supremacy to the innovatively-challenged children that walked the earth, as untrue as the statement was, because there was no harm being done. With Spiro, it was no laughing matter. This man had become a danger to the People the moment his eyes had been able to bypass their walls.

Holly had made it up to the property, shielded and no longer in her disguise. Her ears were sweating, having had been covered up for so long. Nothing moved, no sensors hit her, and there were no men waiting guard outside.

"Eerie." Foaly murmured her thoughts. "Now I really think something's up. No one is that confidant in their security. Even I have backups for my backups."

Holly had to agree. She reached out a hand to push the door open, afraid of what she might find on the other side. She may have been invisible, but that didn't mean that the motion of the door wouldn't read on a detector. She ignored the feeling, speaking to both Butler and Foaly.

"I'm going in."


	8. Under the Surface

I'm very sorry about the updates. This chapter, and the next, have been finished for months. My beta said that they'd look them over months ago and I've repeatedly emailed them and have gotten no reply. If you're out there and getting this, please email me as you've never gotten back to any of my messages.

**That being said, if someone is willing to beta, please tell me. I really do not want Artemis saying the wrong thing**. It's just downright embarrassing. That ALSO being said, considering I'm writing as well a betaing another story literary every day, I'm sorry that this one took so long to get too. And I DID look it over by myself and hope I didn't miss anything too bad.

* * *

**...**

**...**

**Chapter 8: Under the Surface**

Holly pushed the door open slowly, glancing around the interior of the building. Yes, it was a building, not a house. There were couches and desks spread out through the first floor, wide-open spaces that looked inviting but easily held traps of their own.

"Pick up anything?" Holly asked.

"Not a blip. If he's got something in that room, I can't detect it." Holly would have smiled at the defeated tone in the centaur's voice if it wasn't such bad news to her.

"Right, I guess I keep going then."

Holly hovered down the hallway, past a large desk that looked like a secretary would have found rest behind. Nothing struck her as out of place except for the complete emptiness of the building.

"I've run a thermal scan through the whole thing and didn't pick up even a mouse. This place is dead, Holly. That, or this is the best game of hide-and-seek I've ever played."

"This isn't a game." There was a room on her right, and one just slightly ahead on her left. The hallway ran down in that fashion. "Do I have to check all of these?"

"Well, chances of you setting off an alarm will skyrocket, but what the heck? This is a suicide mission to begin with, why not look around? I mean, Artemis could be anywhere." Though they were mocking, Holly felt the truth in those words. Artemis could be anywhere. He didn't even have to be in this building. It all could have been for nothing if Spiro had sent the laptop away.

"Holly, strike that. I'm picking something up."

"Where?" Holly hadn't even had time to check the first room, debating her sanity.

"Down the hall and on the right, the door before the last one. I'm picking up something, but without an omni-cable, I can't tell you more than it's giving off heat."

"Got it. I'm going in then."

"Ah, maybe that's not such a good idea. I wasn't picking up anything a few seconds ago. Unless whatever is in there randomly heats up by itself, like a microwave suddenly turning itself on, I have to think it's a trap."

And it means that someone knows we're here.

"I can't just sit here Foaly." Holly may have spoken but she didn't move forward to act against him. She was a soldier at heart and everything in her knew better than to walk into a room that you knew wasn't secure without any backup. Butler couldn't be much help if she were caught or incapacitated. The big man was a great in a fight, but right now Artemis was the one in danger and that would tie his hands if it came down to it. "What am I supposed to do?"

"It's your call, Holly. Personally, I'd turn tail and get out of there before this whole thing blows up in our faces. We have nothing to go on at this point and, unlike last time, I don't have my own bugs to work into his system."

"I can-"

"Won't work."

Holly hadn't even had time to get out her words before Foaly interrupted her. How did he know what she was going to say?

"These nanobots that Spiro has, I'm sure he saved some for himself. With our sensors on them, anything I do would be picked up in an instant. You were going to ask why I couldn't just highjack his system, weren't you, Captain Short?"

Holly huffed out a breath. "Well, if there's nothing we can do, it doesn't leave me with many options."

Foaly stomped his back hoofs, irritated. "You're already sticking your neck out as it is, and I don't think Fowl isn't worth it, but Holly... this is pushing things. We're already breaking enough rules as it is for him. To go in blindly would be foolish."

"If we can't get eyes on the place, there's no way but to go in blindly in any case, even in the next hundred years." Holly didn't like it still. She didn't want to. She wasn't stupid and, if this really was a trap by Spiro, there was no way the man could believe any friends that Artemis had would be that stupid either.

Of course, she was still going to do it if there was no other choice and that was pretty much sending off landing lights that yes, they were all a big pack of idiots underneath all the brains.

"Foaly, where's the computer? You said you were picking up a signal from it before."

"I am. The only thing I can really get from it is it's somewhere near you, as in somewhere in the structure your in." There was some grumbling after that about mudmen and all their design flaws, then something about apes. "There must be a scrambling signal and, without a direct link, I can't shut it down to get a more pinpoint reading."

"Holly…" Foaly couldn't see her since he was using the open monitors to survey the building but he'd never seen her stay in one place for so long, even when she wasn't on a mission. "Think about it. This is stupid. If Fowl really were in there I'd be picking up more than heat. There's no sound. Retreat now while we have the time and let's think about this."

Holly had to admit he was right. It wasn't that she didn't want to go in there just to be sure Artemis wasn't really just beyond the door, but the reward wasn't worth the risk when it was clear that they'd been played since the beginning. She retreated back outside, no action taken when the door was reopened and closed again. She went back to Butler who was still waiting in the van, not saying anything as she put the display back on. "So, what do we do now?"

"We wait," Foaly said patiently. Holly wasn't as patient. "If Fowl had any type of plan, I'm sure he'll find some way of telling us what it is."

Butler took it that they had found nothing. He'd had no ear on the place and Holly had left him nothing behind to know how things were going other than the 'if it looks like something's going wrong, get the hell in here.'

Holly sat back against the seat of the van. He was right. Artemis wasn't stupid and if he needed them, he'd find them.

"Sunset only," Butler spoke up. "If we don't having any sign by then, I'm going in to find out whatever's in there, Artemis or not."

Holly couldn't agree with him more.

"I know." Though Foaly wasn't giving her live feed from his end, she could tell he was smiling. "Good luck, Captain."

"I don't need luck." Holly took in a deep breath. She could use all the luck she could get, but she wasn't going to tell the centaur that and end up sounding like a child.

* * *

Artemis never truly fell asleep. He was likely going to need the rest, but he had time to plan now and he wasn't going to waste it. What he had in motion so far was still in a nascent state. He had little doubt there would be trouble with that, though.

The only downside was what he couldn't predict, and that had him more than a bit worried. His embryonic plans were weighing heavily on chance and his own predictions, which made the outlook of success much more dim since life forms were the hardest of creatures to calculate.

He must have spent hours in the darkness, but to him it was just a steady stream of thought and possibility while he sat on the mattress; everything but his own mental processes on plans of escape were nothing but a quiet hum in the background.

As it was, the only reason the Irish teen noticed the door opening was the harsh light that came with it – too much for simply his eyelids to block out and his mind to ignore.

"Well, Arty." Spiro stood in the doorway (or, more accurately, leaned against the frame). "We were talking about how you can recover so quickly. I want to run some tests on you now. Not me personally, obviously, but those working for me."

Artemis wasn't intimidated; he didn't think a man of any such callousness would ever inspire fear in him when broadcasting power as an intimidation technique was often used to hide the lacking of proper mental facilities.

Of course, the bodyguard that he had hired did not fall under the same category, and Artemis did sense what he believed may be a bit of cowardice on his own part. That, though, in his opinion, was a sensible reaction based on past events.

Nero either didn't need much strength to act against him, or Artemis was weaker than he had believed himself to be, as the man came over and briefly fought for a hold on him. What had to be another sleep-inducing chemical was placed in front of his mouth. Since he had needed the sleep, it couldn't have taken much effort to get him there, depending on what time it actually was – it was hard to tell in a basement room, if indeed he was still in one.

Spiro waited until the teen was out. While he didn't seem as dangerous as his mind had played out before he'd actually taken the boy, he knew better than to judge a Fowl by looks. Even the kid he'd taken to get to the teen was under more than lock and key.

"Bring him to the lab. Let the guys look him over. The last thing I need is to find out that little Arty here is more of a danger to himself than he is to me." He needed Artemis. Without the teen and his hidden knowledge they wouldn't be able to advance any further. While his lab guys had made spectacular progress once they were shown what he had picked up, there were some things they could not replicate.

And he never did find any trace of what was used to heal the boy.

Spiro didn't really understand half the things they told him, but he acted as if he did, and as long as he had his little walking book of information he'd be able to get what he needed whether he understood their language or not.

Of course, none of the three men really liked having to accepting looking after little Arty. The term 'illegal' came up now and then, but you had to deal with things like this in order to get good help. He knew he had good help now, considering there used to be four of them. Most people were easy to scare straight.

Spiro let them be, going back to what Travis had been working on. The man was as spineless as he was intelligent and that made him the perfect assistant in all of this.

"Have you figured it out yet?"

Travis felt his blood go cold when his 'boss' came into the room. He was looking over the data on the boy's blood once more, as well as some skin samples that hadn't told him more than his heritage.

"Um." He didn't want to say he hadn't gotten anywhere, but even with the scopes and the machines there was no way to tell what had been done to the teen let alone how to replicate it.

So there was silence.

Spiro wasn't all that upset, not yet. Little Arty hadn't had time to share his information, but he would within the next few hours. "You're about to get your assistant. You better not disappoint me this time."

Travis meekly nodded, hoping that would be the end if it. He didn't want to know what was going on and he wasn't up to asking. He just wanted out, and to get out, he had to finish what was asked of him.

…

Artemis dusted his clothes off. He didn't know where they had come from or what they had been in contact with, but the least he could do was make himself somewhat presentable in the clothes of the mediocrity.

Jon, or whomever was in charge of his wardrobe, had to have chosen the cheapest and most childish clothing he could find. Artemis swore after this day he would never wear strips again.

He also had to wonder where the clothes he had come in had wandered off to.

"Little Arty. Seems there isn't anything wrong with you that you didn't already do to yourself." Spiro smiled at the Irish teen. The band on the boy's wrist was safe enough for now and he needed him to do the research for him.

A band that he had taken great pains to have made just for their guest.

Artemis walked beside him, a little woozy still from whatever they had used to keep him unconscious. He had to make sure that whatever they had done truly hadn't impaired him. A microchip or anything of the like would bother him in the long run as well.

He also didn't remember coming here and having had anything terrible enough inflicted on him if Spiro was to be believed and he'd had a stroke.

"Here Arty." Spiro patted the teen on the back, leading him a few doors down from the medical part of his operation to the part devoted to the scientists. "Meet Travis here. He's going to tell me the second that you touch something that you really don't need to be touching."

Artemis watched the unsubtle gesture as Spiro threw open the side of his coat to show that he was armed.

A gun just didn't inspire the fear it used to.

Turning, the teen showed no alarm, facing the older man. "You need me. If you shoot me I won't be able to help you."

"Are we being smart now, little boy? I didn't say I was going to kill you with it."

The threat wasn't much more effective than the show of power was.

He also still had a headache, that could have been created through a great variety of reasons, that could have him thinking irrationally.

"Well now," Artemis turned to the older man who'd been introduced as only 'Travis.' He was a wiry looking man for a scientist, his clothes looking disheveled where most he knew were perfectionists, wearing a black coat that was tattered and obviously years old instead of a lab coat. "What did you need my help with? And how long must I help you in order to set my brother free?"

"Until you tell me how you do this." Spiro was starting to feel better about this. He held all the cards this time- he had made sure of it. There was no way Fowl could do anything without him knowing. He poked the boy hard in the chest. "You obviously have to make something or an other to heal yourself, since you're arm's still cut."

Artemis shifted his arm at his side. It wasn't a bad cut but it would hinder him from holding his own weight up if he must - even if he normally didn't do such things - for any more than a minute. A few seconds with Holly after all of this and it wouldn't be bothering him though. Artemis had to keep thinking that since he was mentally attributing the pain in his head, separate from the pain of wounds, as the overreaction of sensors in his brain.

"Physical reconstitution. That's all you wanted me for?" Artemis looked at Jon. The man could easily make sure that he wasn't killed or injured, even on the run as he was. The bodyguards here told as much. Why then would he need to learn the human equivalent of healing magic?

"I want the business it would bring, kid. You're so shortsighted for someone who's supposed to be smart." Spiro tapped him mockingly on the head. "And no. I want everything you can give me. I don't know what trick you pulled last time but I want to be able to do it to. I have to admit, I haven't been able to figure that one out. And some people think I was having delusions."

Travis quivered, backing up a step from Spiro. Artemis couldn't blame him. Even for an adult, the man seemed rather cowardly.

And unless a fairy showed up and volunteered to help in his endeavors, there would be no way to fake his disappearing act.

"Right, um." Travis took a step towards the boy who he didn't know and was as obviously under threat as they all were. He could understand him and the others, but Jon Spiro taking a kid was… not all that unbelievable once he thought on it.

Turning to the table, Travis moved a few things about, trying to find paperwork for the basic designs he had turned up for the nanobot design he'd only just finished a few days ago. "This and this." He point out some of the specs, not sure how he was supposed to work with a kid. "We've been able to make the bio-material ourselves but whatever organic compound made up the inner layer that supplies the energy for it to work well… I guess it either wore itself out or… something."

Artemis looked over at the man's research. It was very similar to his own after he had run into Holly except for the fact that he'd has several L.E.P. detection devices that he was able to utilize to figure out the engineering and rehash it into his own creations. He had not replicated the technology itself, only recycled it.

In truth, Travis hadn't found a power source. He'd taken what little bit of physical matter under a scope and done his best to recreate it's chemical compound. The makeup was hard for even him to follow, as if a piece that was needed for it didn't even exist anymore. Someone had made it though, so that couldn't be the case. It did mean his earlier prototypes were short lived due to his inability to find either the right process or one close enough to it to substitute.

"If all we're going to do is sit and stare at this all day then let me bring in a table and some cups of tea." Spiro took the gun out and rested it against the back of Fowl's head. "You made it, you know what you're looking at. There's no way you would have given information like this to someone else."

Artemis almost wanted to sit down and have a nice relaxing brew of tea.

The Irish teen rested his fingers against his forehead, unfazed by anything more than his own intolerable headache. While he did this, he searched for anything he could use that would set off Foaly's alarms. Spiro had made him do it once, on accident, and if he could get a signal far enough underground he could do it again. There had to be instruments here that he could make use of.

"I had a partner," Artemis lied, or somewhat lied. Foaly would not have let him refer to him in anywhere close to that manner. "He's impossible to reach at this point in time though and I haven't looked at the parameters of this in a while."

Spiro made a noise in the back of his throat but didn't lower the gun. "What are you showing him anyway?" The businessman looked at Travis for this answer. He wanted to know and half the time he had no idea what the man was doing, only that he was doing it to better serve his cause.

"Um. The plans for the new bots." Travis stuck his hand on top of the papers, looking at his boss uncertainty. "Should I not?"

Spiro smiled and then laughed dryly. "It's fine. I'm sure little Arty here knows how to make them last longer than a week."

Artemis couldn't help the smile. Even with fairy technology they hadn't been able to create an artificial source of power either that could survive the biological mutations that it had shown off earlier- at least, not for long period of time. It was likely the one at his house was feeding off of the plant and would be out of recourses and gone in the next few days.

He, of course though, had used a different type of power source, since a living one would be tapped far too quickly.

While walking down the path of virtue, Artemis's main sources had been solar batteries. Down here in the realm of artificial light he wouldn't be able to power up anything and cells requiring an unnaturally occurring power supply would be too large. The fairies had pulled it off, but they'd had millennia and the earth's harder to reach resources to work with. He had only his shorter human lifespan and he was not about to devote all that to only the fundamentals of such a project, seeing as it would take years just to create the aspects of it he would need.

"Well Arty?" Spiro grabbed the papers from the worthless inventor, or as he preferred, scientist, and shoved them towards the Irish teen. "You can't help me with them without seeing what I have so far."

If he was expecting the boy to be impressed, he would have been disappointed.

Artemis didn't even bother looking at the designs. He had been working on the same thing some years before and had a guess, if not from some of the chemical compounds that were likely substituted where he had not, that most of the same conclusions had been drawn and had gone into the little wonder.

"I have-" His headache spiked, causing Artemis to stutter, something he despised doing. Whatever he had been exposed to, at the hospital or a result of Holly's magic, as the headaches had started then, was obviously taking its toll. He hope they were not affecting more than nerves and not the root of something that would cause him to become even less intelligent that the damage that was already there, started by the electricity.

Spiro was suddenly angry at the dismissal and the teen's sudden lack of explanation, smacking him across the face. He would have hit him but even with that simple an action, the teen tripped backwards and fell over.

That anger suddenly turned to amusement and Spiro laughed. "Can't even stay on your feet, Arty?"

Artemis didn't dignify him with an answer, resisting the urge to put a hand to his injured cheek. The man wasn't that much larger but Spiro had likely been in more fights than he had- be them some were trolls and goblins and demons but still, experience made all the difference over dumb luck.

"You will never get anywhere with those blueprints. No battery can run alongside biological matter successfully. You will need stem cells to even try to produce something along those lines and even then it would have to run on a solely biologically plane which makes it incredibly difficult to send something such as audio, let alone video. You would have to make something very much like a human eye and mold thin fiber optics cables into it to even have a chance. Then find some why to preserve and keep the specimen alive to send that information," Artemis rattled out, seeing that self satisfaction look leave Jon's face. He had not intended to give out so much information but it was fine. A fiber optic cable that was capable of such a thing didn't exist yet but in top-secret labs of several governments around the world and even those were still in their infantile phases. Jon could not have gotten any such technology from the iris cam that he had picked up, thought it would be a fine line. The truth was, what he had gotten he likely wasn't able to understand, let alone use.

"Well?" Spiro snapped at the scientist who immediately dropped the papers containing secondary ideas on the design of the nanobots. "Can you do that?"

"Um- I- no one can. You don't know. If you have those kinds of- it would be a lot of sensors and they would have to- it would- you don't understand. We don't have anything capable of something like that if I- It's not my fault."

Spiro immediately turned his eyes on the teen. "And can you?"

That took Artemis by surprise. Could he? Yes, he likely could. It would take a few good weeks and he would need all the technology back at the manor, but it wasn't something out of his grasp. If anything, it was something his new humanitarian side could not find any good purposes for. "If the leading experts in the world could not do it, I do not see how I could." It wasn't a lie, at least, not outright. He had more than most of the leading experts in the world had.

Spiro reached over and grabbed the teen up by the front of his shirt. "I know you Fowl. I'm sure you've got secrets that the world doesn't even know exists. Travis! Here." He pushed the teen, though it was more of a throw considering the Irish boy didn't weigh much and had not gotten his footing back, to the older man who only just caught him under one of his arms so he didn't wind up back on the ground again. "He's yours for three hours and if I don't see any difference, him, Nero and I will need to discuss things again. I'm sure you know what that means."

Spiro strode off, still in a good mood. If he couldn't get the boy to listen to him through fear of physical violence, he always had his brother.

Artemis straightened himself out, letting go of the man who had saved him from the floor. He could not be angry with him because it was clear that he wasn't here under his own initiative. He couldn't find himself the energy to pity him either because, even being encaged in this madness, he was helping its progress instead of hindering it. As the head scientist, there was a lot that he could pull off on the sly that would put a wrench in the works.

"Um, you okay?" Travis asked the boy uncertainly. He'd seen him unconscious but now that he was human and in front of him and talking to him, it was different.

"I'll be just fine." After straightening the childish clothes out, Artemis turned to the table and quickly scanned over all the works that were there. Odds were he was being monitored. The best way to fight that was to do as he was told- and maybe use some of his own inventions if he could create them to mess with that same video feed. There was nothing biological in here for any more of those little spy bugs the lab had already invented to take roost on on, but that did not mean that there couldn't be other, more modern day, cameras watching him either. He'd have to find them.

"Ah, I think we should- you know, there's nothing more I can do with the BEEs so… I don't think anyone can really help with that?"

"BEEs?" Artemis asked, hearing the capital letters in the word. "Where they the machines that were used to spy on me?"

"Ah, maybe?" Travis spoke uncertainly. He went into one of the drawers and pulled out a small petri dish that was covered- insulated was the word he would have used since there was nothing, not even gas, inside of it and it would react to the oxygen in the air, changing it to whatever it was nearest to… much like stem cells that the boy had brought up. They simply didn't like being mixed with electronic compounds since there wasn't any real way to supply them with power.

The teen looked over at the small thing that appeared no bigger than a grain of rice. "Amazing that you were able to make it so compact. This can't be all of it."

Travis shook his head. "No, it's the brain. I needed to create something that knew how to change the malleable tissue around it. It needed all the basic compounds that the human brain does. They're actually really hard to make since they can't be exposed to anything, even metal, while they're being created, or it ruins it."

"And BEEs?" Artemis asked again, having not gotten an answer.

"Biological Electronic Energy. BEEs. I was hoping they could be used for more than just spy equipment. You know, like to help sick people who have tissue damage and what stem cell research had been going into, only without the stem cells. I'd never be able to create enough of them for something like that though, and Mr. Spiro seemed interested at the time in helping with that, so I thought I might be able to use the funding and-"

"And I understand," Artemis cut in. He was actually somewhat impressed. He had not developed a symbiotic brain on such a minuscule level himself, especially not one that worked on such parameters. "How long ago did you develop this? It is revolutionary to say the least."

"Um, not until after I got here. There was this tissue I'd never seen before and… I was able to use the materials that worked and looked a lot like microchips to form a computer that would allow me to touch elements without actually having them exposed to anything and- and then I was able to finish it. Before it wasn't much more than just an idea." He had no idea how he was supposed to talk to a child that apparently had more knowledge than it seemed, who at the same time was still a kid and might not understand what he was talking about.

"If you come out of these trials unscathed and I am still around to back up my offer, I wouldn't mind hiring you on myself. You do not have to worry about my ethics either. I am not as unstable."

That was the last thing he thought he'd hear. The imprisoned teenager, who looked like he really hadn't seen a day of sunlight in his life and had all the ferocity of a field mouse, was offering him a job. "I- ah, don't think either of us will be leaving but- you know what, sure." He put his hand out, not sure of why he was doing it. "I'd rather work with a grizzly bear at this point."

"I don't think it's _that_ small of a step up to have me as a boss over a puerile carnivore. If I had to compare I would say it would be like working for the president as opposed to a rebel. I think that is where the difference between Jon and I lie. It is not easy to fight a rebel though when they have-" Artemis thought he heard something. He wasn't sure what to place it as, since he didn't think he had ever heard it quite the way he did now and it was so muffled it was hard to make out. "What was that?"

"Ah, probably upstairs. Mr. Spiro likes to play with some of my things once I get them working right. He built upstairs so he could do it safely and still… get down here fast enough to yell about everything that went wrong."

There was an upstairs. He had the feeling that they were underground but now it seemed there was likely a building of some type on top of it and not just an empty stretch of land.

"That's weird though. I haven't shown him anything recently. He just kept talking about you and how we were going to get these working." Now that he had the chance, Travis bent down and picked up all the papers he had dropped. "I don't really see how you can though."

"You have an isolation chamber right?" Artemis spoke. He would have to find some way to retrieve the fairy technology later, while he was escaping or soon after.

"Yeah, sure. I only just finished it a month or so ago though. I'm not too sure if it's fool proof yet."

"I will not contaminate it. It is where you create your artificial brain. That being the case, I would like you to take me to it. If I'm to manipulate it if I must, I need to see the process. It might just give me the inspiration on how to fix that little BEE problem of yours."

* * *

Sunset had come and gone and still there had been no word from Artemis. Holly couldn't take it and, as much of a solider as Butler was, she could see him reaching the end of his restraint as well. It had been dark for hours now.

"It's our only clue."

"Then we should check it out," Holly said, getting out of the car.

"There aren't any windows to those back rooms," Butler said just as evenly. "If it were me, it would be one of the most obvious places to put a trap. Something that I'd only believe those stupid enough to try would fall for."

"Hey," Holly said indignantly. "It's not nice to call your friends stupid."

"Its not nice to let your friends go into a trap and get killed either."

"I won't," Holly winked before shielding herself, making her way out of the car invisibly and going back to the house. '_Just watch_.'

….

Holly went back to the door she had been in earlier. It was dark now and there was almost no light making its way in from outside. She had to rely on the night vision in her helmet. "Foaly, you get that heat signal back yet?"

"A few times," the centaur admitted. "Not for long though. It was only a minute or two and then it would go away again. Holly, that can't be Artemis and, considering that there's no other heat source, that would have to be the most intelligent microwave on or below the earth to be doing this to my scans."

"Unless Spiro is messing with your readings."

Foaly said nothing to that. There was nothing to say. She was right. He hated that several people had now used his own technology against him. "This isn't fair. Why do all the bad guys take my things?"

"Because no one's as smart as you so the only way to fight you is to have you fight yourself."

On the other end of the readout, Foaly moved his hooves uncomfortably. He liked the intense amount of praise that sentence held but he knew that he hadn't always been on the good end of the things when chaotic, world-ending events, had cooled down after one of their missions. Artemis had beaten him with human technology. That had been a downright insult. Opal had gotten pretty close too. "Just know it might not be tricking my sensors. Your suit can take a lot of pressure but if you set off an explosion there won't be much of you left to pick up off the floor."

"I hear you," she said, facing the mysterious door again and whatever was on the other side. That was why she prepared herself. Before she even touched the door she took out her Neutrino and cut a small hole just to the side.

That's when she discovered how short sighted her planning was.

There was no bomb on the other side.

There was something, something that looked a lot like clay, which came in contact with her beam once it broke through the plaster. She had just planned on making a small peephole. That never happened. The second that the plastic explosive was exposed to the intense heat of the ray it, along with the miles of it that ran the inside of the building, all ignited at the same time.

Holly had no time to think. There was just fire and pressure everywhere, worse than most of her live jumps up those magma flairs when one could tell that the next was on its way. The only thing she remembered thinking was that that was either the most elaborate trap she had ever seen or it had been a precaution and she just ended up killing more than herself in one of the stupidest moves of her career.


	9. A Franc for your Questions

**Chapter 9: A Franc for your Questions**

Artemis had to admit, he had to get one of these chambers himself. There had never been space or, with is brothers, time to create or try to maintain something like this- not to mention he had other work. There were always labs in the world that, with one word, he could get himself into.

This one was a lot like one of those but for one main difference- the omni sensor. The man had obviously used components of it to make this little wonder, not only having the ability to synthesize elements and matter, but the ability to create them with trace amounts of the cells that were already there.

He was messing with a few of them now. There were so many options at his fingertips that his mind hadn't thought existed (not things that _could_ exist), focused on other projects or he was sure they would have come to him. Soon he was far past this man, Travis, who was taking him through the process of creating his little brain.

The teen typed as he thought, hearing the man mutter that the things he was doing shouldn't be done and that he was going to create something that might make the chamber unstable. Artemis could feel how greatly the man was underestimating his talents.

He had to create something too since he had no desire to find himself strapped to a chair and electrocuted again. Every brain cell he was losing to that was only going to hinder him. Of course, if this man succeeded with his research, in a few years, there would be advancement in all sorts of biological cures that had all the possibilities of replacing what he had lost.

So Artemis tinkered around with the microorganisms that were available. He could make something functioning in maybe ten hours and he'd make it has harmless while still of profit as he could… but how?

If there was one thing the Irish teen wasn't good at, it was stifling himself.

Light, he thought after a while. Light was the key but artificial forensic in organisms had been put out into the world after testing years back now. He'd need something more computer based, something that could be control. Something though, that had to catch Spiro's attention and with that, Artemis started up a program, mapping out chemical structure and messing with the DNA profile of the amorphic specimen that Artemis really didn't want to think about where it had come from. It had the DNA of no human, but it definitely had roots there. Now to figure out how to use those cables and sensors with his own creation.

Artemis could create so much at this moment, make so many miraculous wonders the surface or underground world had not seen- but he had to remind himself not now, not for this man. It was still hard.

What he wound up with in a few hours time was something that he bread into, as Spiro did, a plant. He would not sacrifice an animal for his testing and a plant worked just as well seeing as this other man had done all he could to make it capable or running off of plant mater and avoiding anything with a DNA signature of a conscious being.

He was not anywhere near close to done. Not only did it need to mature with the gnomes that he'd mixed with it, but it wasn't stable. A minute outside and it would be nothing more than sickish residue of what had once been a living entity, as much as it lacked a mind or not.

Jon Spiro of course cared nothing about this and hit the teen hard on the shoulder, forcing him into several keys that he needed to retract in seconds on the keypad of the temperature and elements allowed in the chamber.

"Well Arty, you fix our little problem?"

Artemis was fond of the nickname at this point where his friends were concerned but hearing it from Spiro was nothing short of insulting- as much as he had intended or not.

"It takes years to create something and only seconds to destroy it. You've given me a few hours. I'm far ahead of that 'years' mark but what advances I can help you with won't be ready for a few hours. There is an artwork in science and time isn't something humans can control." No, not humans.

"Oh come now Arty, you know that's not what I want to here." Spiro grabbed him by the collar of the shirt, letting his hand roam toward the back of it and pulling the teen towards him.

Artemis was getting less and less surprised by Spiro's actions. He didn't seem on the same thinking plane as the rest of the world, maybe a little on the side of the mentally ill, but he couldn't control a small noise of shock and bit of pain as he was dragged the foot forward and pulled against him.

"What do you want me to do, speed up the timeline?"

"Well, now," Spiro said with a smile, looking Artemis up and down. He looked far younger than he should if he had been thirteen when they met. His skin barely left a trace of that bullet wound. "If you could share your secrets, yes, please, speed up time for me."

The teen spent all of a moment to be shocked, his eyes wide and he happy he was not facing his current captor. "Are you insane?"

That did it. For some reason and, Artemis really should have consulted his brain before speaking as he normally did, that snarky comment had the thin, whisp of a man pulling him to the floor and striking him on the side of the face.

"I AM NOT INSANE!" Spiro shouted and, Artemis had to admit, the exclamation did not help his case with the hints of madness in the words.

"Um, Mister Spiro, I'm sure the boy didn't mean anything by it," Travis spoke up. "It is just that-" Travis had no idea what the teen had been doing but he'd seen some of the work over his shoulder. He was sure the boy was onto something that he had himself overlooked. "These things do take time. You're a rational man, you understand that."

"Yes," said Spiro, shaking off the tension. "I am a rational man. So rational I know you can still be of use to me so I won't kill you for that." He stood and clapped his hands. He was not used to being physical. Prison had changed him in some ways, made him more wiry and defensive. If it weren't for that and his extreme hate of this boy, he would never have resorted to such boarish behavior. "But know this Arty, this isn't like before. You can't get away with talking to me like that."

Nero who, for all Artemis knew, had been sent off for something since he hadn't seen him in some time, stepped around the corner and grabbed him under the arm, pulling him up.

"Back in the main room. Little Arty needs to learn some manners. Maybe his brother will like some rat poison in his food tomorrow."

"No!" Artemis shouted before he could control himself. "You touch my brother and so help me you won't get any of my assistance and you will pay dearly for your actions."

"Who's the one in charge here? Oh right, it's me." Once he was standing Spiro struck the teen again. "You never did have any respect for power. THIS is what power is."

The side of Artemis's face was starting to hurt but he told himself again that he'd had worse. He had. He'd never had his tormentor holding his family captive- well now, that was a lie. His father had been held, but they were easily outsmarted. This was different.

Artemis clenched his teeth together, thinking fast. He hadn't had time to relay anything more. He had to hope that they knew what they were doing, that they'd find him. If not, maybe they could at least get Beckett if Artemis himself failed- not that that was likely.

"Forgive me," the teen said, loosening his hold on the adrenaline spiking though his mind, trying to spark confrontation in him he wanted to avoid. "I didn't mean any of it. I know you are in control. I won't cross you."

Spiro laughed, cupping Artemis's face in his hand. "There now, that's what I like to hear. It doesn't change that you did cross me though. Let's go." The tycoon turned on his heels, the other two following though, in Artemis's case, it was more like being dragged since Nero was holding his arm so close it was hard to take a step correctly.

Artemis wasn't sure if it was in the main room though every part of him went into disobedience, nerves alive and heart racing once more when he saw the chair, one foot moving to stop him though in the stronger man's grasp it was no resistance at all. "Please don't. I can't help you if can't think straight." _Or if I die_, he thought morbidly.

"We won't get a repeat of last time. I lowered the current. You should be just fine. If not, I will have to see if I can't replace you and it will be a shame to have to do that, but not impossible."

Fear was not as controllable as he wished, which Artemis knew full well. In fact, he could fight almost anything off except when danger was coming right at him. His mind was of no use then and now would be a good time to have Butler by his side if he had given his bodyguard even a clue as to where he had been going.

While he didn't verbalize any of his mental struggles he couldn't control the physical ones, fighting ever second even as he was strapped down to the chair once more, this time while he was conscious. Of course, his struggles made no difference at all.

Pleading for mercy was not something Artemis would do but this was one of those times he thought it was good to make an acceptation to the rule. "Please don't. It will take a lot longer if I don't overlook the growth. For however long this knocks me out will be that much longer until you get your perfect spy."

"I've waited years," Spiro said with a smile as he started up the current, though not sending it out just yet. "I can wait a few more hours. I wouldn't want to miss the show."

…

Holly woke up, dazed but seemingly unhurt. Normally when this happened it was because her magic had already taken effect while she was unconscious and had kept her out even longer. She didn't feel that same drain she got with a healing and, after Artemis's, her magic would have been at its limits if she had.

The destroyed building lay in ruins around her, the structure half-standing and the windows and any other furnishings long gone. She could see clear down the hall now, almost every room having been blown out except for the few struggling nails and oak that refused to give.

"Foaly," Holly called, her helmet still in place. "What happened?"

"What do you mean what happened?" the centaur quipped irritated. "You blew up the whole mudman establishment, that's what happened. You should have at least set the beam lower and checked for bugs in the wall. Really Holly, that was reckless, even for you."

"I wasn't talking about that." But yes, the move had been stupid. She was used to just busting in, though with who they were dealing with, both of the who's they were dealing with, even the one they were rescuing, it was the small things that mattered. "I meant why am I okay? I should have been in that rubble too."

Holly received no answer.

"I have no idea. I thought you barricaded yourself or something," finally came the response after a few seconds of silence and the sound of fingertips dancing across the keyboard. "The only feed I get from the cam is all the smoke."

What had saved her then? She looked down at her suit. Sure she was a little dirty but nothing was wrong. There were no tears or cuts and her helmet, not to mention her head, was still in place. Being thrown around, that she remembered, but between those seconds of darkness and the feel of heat and pressure from the blast- nothing.

She stood, shielding herself once she realized human eyes could be watching her.

Strange. That was all very strange. "Can you get visual from something other than the cam?"

"I was," Foaly replied, just as indignantly as before, though with a bit more worry now. This was the second time he hadn't picked anything up. What could he possibly be missing- or not seeing? "I had a satellite feed of the area. I didn't it recording anything to anyone and as you've said, the human's are getting smarter by getting more stupid. With them using my own gadgets, I don't know what Spiro planted or how wide the effects of it are. By the way, Butler's on his way in. You should see him in a few seconds."

It wasn't more than a second before the big man walked over to where she was, though of course he couldn't see her and he wasn't calling out to her, just looking around intently. Holly smiled, going over and nudging a piece of material that used to hang from the ceiling, the sky now shining through and the wires running along like multicolored spider webs.

Butler saw and he nodded, turning back around and going to the car. Holly took one last look around her, wondering just what had saved her one last time before following after him.

The secondary thoughts sank in later. There was no one here beside her when the place erupted into fire. She would have seen a burned body at the least if there had been.

So where was Artemis?

…

The Irish teen wasn't as far as Holly was thinking. In fact, he was just meters under her feet, resting in the reinforced basement.

He was also, currently, not much worse off than being that incinerated body that Holly had pictured was on the other side of the door when the explosion had been triggered.

Artemis screamed, though he couldn't be sure he was making any sound at this point. He had to hope he wasn't. It was one thing if he died but he wasn't going to die like the terrified prisoner he was forced to be.

Once the current stopped he was left shaking, the backs of his arms burning. He had to guess they were doing some physical damage to him but he couldn't really think on much more than the fact that this was by far some of the worse pain, even if only because it was extended, that he had ever been in.

Then the current was back, the metal frame of the chair burning into where he could already feel pain, though the shock to his nervous system was so much he only felt it after the current was gone once more and Artemis's body forced him to do something he had never done before- he whimpered. It was small and he caught it in his throat right after but he couldn't deny the sound.

Countless times he was subjected to the same, Spiro not even taking time to gloat, making sure he couldn't tell the second it would be turned on or off. He could swear he heard the man laugh whenever he made any noise of pain though- if in fact those noises were escaping him.

Body pushed beyond its threshold and his mind almost along with it, the pain stopped and Artemis drew back in the chair irrationally, just trying to release his wrists or ankles from their captivity as Spiro spoke.

"Well now, little Arty, are we learning our lesson? We don't talk back to our elders."

Artemis's fried brain almost made him retort with something that would have gotten him shocked once more before he held it in check and let out a quiet _"yes, I know_."

The teen felt the man's cold fingers on his face while his other went to his shoulder. There was nowhere for him to pull away and Artemis wouldn't have, even if he could, instead turning bright, if not a shaken, eyes onto the older man.

Spiro laughed. "Do you still want to fight me?"

"No," Artemis spoke, louder and more evenly than before now that he was getting his facilities back. "You touched me. I assumed you wanted me to look at you."

Spiro let him go, pushing his head back to make him hit the chair. It didn't really hurt considering the pervious injures.

"You still think you can be such a smart ass, don't you Arty? Well, we'll see." Spiro raised something up in front of him and Artemis looked at what could be a metallic drummer's stick. Spiro lightly touched it to left cheek. "You never did give me any of your secrets, you're just changing my own work. Well Arty, I want to know how you fixed this." Spiro's other hand went to his chest where he'd been shot and before Artemis could even think of an answer the metal rod on his skin came to life with electricity, forcing what he hoped didn't sound as terrified a scream as Artemis thought it did, the sparks burning in a line down his face where it was touched, half his vision left in a fuzzy mess once the pain was gone.

Something sparked in the back of his mind, his vision in the eye clearing as he blinked. The headache that had been so bad before had intensified once that happened, something his mind trying desperately to grasp as what was going on in his own body and not being able to comprehend it.

Spiro leaned in and drew in close to his face, making Artemis clench his teeth when his fingers moved down the new mark. He had to hope Holly could do something about that before returned. He wasn't going to be going home like this.

"How realistic, Arty. How amazing. To think what people would pay to change something like their eye color. Tell me, how did you do it."

"Time travel," Artemis said snidely, though really, it wasn't a lie.

Spiro struck him in the face, aiming for the new burn. "You are going to tell me your secrets! Don't you understand? I _own_ you!" The businessman was obviously missing some screws as he straightened up, his personality seeming to change as well.

"Or do you just need more incentive?" he asked.

There was a click.

Artemis opened his eyes to the television that he had seen earlier. Beckett was there, thought he room had changed drastically since the last time he had seen in. The television that was placed in there was upside-down, glass from it scattered across the floor. The desk that had been in the room, empty, was turned on its side, the drawers pulled out. His brother obviously didn't have enough strength to tip the bed over so he had moved it, pushed the mattress off, and spread the sheets around the room.

Beckett himself was sitting in a corner, angry, with his arms crossed, throwing whatever was near him to the other side of the room. He looked alright, if not for his hands looking like he had a few cuts on them, likely his brother's own doing.

"He's been hard to handle," Spiro spoke, seeming undeterred but the scene. The man took his phone out and called someone. "Get the boy."

"Don't touch him," Artemis spoke up, his heart hurting through physically pushing so much after the torture- for that was what it was. He could feel it hurting for his brother as well. "I told you, I worked with someone else. It can't be done again. Don't you think I would have both my eyes the same color if it could?"

Spiro turned to him. It was technically a lie. Artemis never did see if he could get it changed back, he didn't want it to.

"You know just as well as I," the teen continued when he knew he has Spiro's attention, "That body parts can be transferred. The eye is the same. It failed though. I would need eternity and a day to try and get it working again." Most of that was the truth and he tried to get Spiro to see that.

The man was too far gone though. For the first time when he looked at him did Artemis see, fully see, just how over the edge Spiro had been pushed. "Human transplantation. That sounds interesting. I'd need a doctor for that, not a scientist. Travis isn't nearly as helpful where that's concerned though he did help me build this marvelous chair you're sitting it. I needed you alive. Maybe we can try that experiment again, only with you. There are a lot of people who want blue eyes and even one of yours could benefit me."

Artemis had to hope he was joking about that. He could fight him now but he wouldn't be able to if he was on a table somewhere, unconscious.

"I need my eyes to help you. Let me go now so I can finish what I was working on. I promise you-" Artemis had to stop when his eyes went back to the screen and he saw someone holding his brother, Beckett struggling but clearly overpowered as any three year old would be. "You won't be disappointed. Just let my brother go."

Spiro turned head with a smile to the screen. "Let him go you say? Is that an order?" Spiro laughed and it was something that made Artemis's blood go cold. The man put the phone up to his ear again. "You can leave him in there. Go to the door first and see if you can't get him back where he was from there."

"Stop it," Artemis spoke, his addled brain still a bit slow on the uptake. That or he had lost more brain cells than he thought. "You said you wouldn't hurt him."

Spiro closed the phone. "This was from you disobedience, Arty. You can't blame me for it."

Artemis had to watch as the man carrying Beckett took him to the only door in the room, looking back at the corner and tossing his little brother as far as he could from where he was over to the opposite corner. He wasn't the lightest thing and Artemis had to close his eyes when he half-landed on the bed frame, his little brother closing his eyes as tears came to them and curling up on himself, shouting unheard words toward the man who had done it.

"He's three," Artemis spoke, trying to relax himself and failing. "He did nothing and just holding him is enough to hold me. You don't need to hurt him too."

"It was to hurt you," Spiro said with a laugh. "And just like with all my plans, it worked. I'd say goodbye to any hope of being rescued too. You're friends that have been following you just left here. I doubt they'd be coming back."

That one Artemis needed to think on for a second too. His friends? Had Holly and Butler made it this far already? He let the thoughts drift. They could-… he wouldn't think about that. "Then can we get on with this? I can't help you trapped her like this."

"No, no of course you can't." Spiro came over, hitting buttons on the side of his restraints, releasing his wrists, which came away burned. Artemis resisted touching them. It would only make it worse.

Artemis stood, finding his legs not ready for it and Spiro being the one to grab him under the arm to keep him on his feet- which hurt. Artemis gasped in a breath, feeling the skin on the under side of his arm on fire.

"Trivial wounds, Arty, trivial. You had better be able to do what you say. A week Arty. I'll give you a week. A few days have already passed so that leaves you with around four. Prove to me you're useful or your little brother and you will be the next experiments in that transplant idea you've giving me. I should have thought of it myself. You're both perfect candidates, well, not you. You're likely not going to live long if you upset me, but you're brother is perfect."

'You won't be touching him,' Artemis thought to himself. A day. He still needed a day if he was right. His mind though wouldn't let him think anything through and, even being led, the teen felt his legs start to give up, being forced back to his feet every few seconds.

"Come on Arty," Spiro said with aggravation, passing him off to his bodyguard. "You can walk."

"I'm trying," Artemis assured him. He did not want to be lead like this. His hands as his side were shaking and he couldn't control that either. He swallowed anther comment as to why he was having so much trouble with such a simple task. Then something that had been bothering him earlier hit him once again. He had refused to say anything but it was clear he wasn't going to have any time unsupervised. "I have to use the washroom."

Spiro stopped, Nero stopping as well, and looked closely at Artemis.

Artemis looked back though his eyes were closing. His body wanted to shut down and he had to fight it. "I'm not lying. I'll only be a few minutes. There can't be anything I could do or use in the bathroom besides the obvious. I'm sure you would have made sure. I am human."

Spiro seemed to doubt that and, right there, Artemis became even more worried than the man's lack of any sane thought.

He didn't think he was human…

Certainly he had given him reason to believe he was further above the rest of the world when it came to healing and technology, but he was here, he would have been checked over, and the man was still giving serious consideration to the fact that he was some type of alien or new species. "What else would I be? Humans do need to use the bathroom as do most organisms that have conscious thought." And he hadn't remembered doing so since he'd arrived, though odds were he would have had to. It hadn't bothered him until now. He didn't want to think on that.

"Fine." Spiro turned, changing direction with Artemis being pulled after. "But stop that act or I'll make sure it's the last time you see the bathroom- ever."

How encouraging. It wasn't an act. Even so, he doubted Jon would believe him so he attempted to get his feet functioning back the way they normally would. It was hard and he could feel burns on his ankles as well but he somewhat succeeded at traversing the hallway, while still being pulled, but the time they arrived at another door. Spiro pushed it open. "Go on then."

Artemis was released and he stumbled for a second before grabbing the frame on the other side of the door and supporting himself. He looked over at Spiro, his hand on the doorknob. "You don't need to watch, do you?"

Spiro huffed as if thinking about it before letting go of the door. "Just hurry up. I'm a busy man."

Artemis made sure the door was closed before going over to the toilet, tempted to throw up. He wasn't feeling well and he hadn't had much to eat. Jon had likely had him on something while he was asleep or sick that had been the equivalent of food. He went and sat on the toilet, embarrassed at doing this at such a time but not willing to wait anymore. "_Hurry and think_," he said quietly to himself. _"I don't feel so well. Beckett is injured. He's guarded and everything in the room is destroyed- he could hurt himself more. My friends were likely injured as well, though I have no idea what he meant by saying they were 'close to me'_." Artemis sighed, enjoying the time he was able to sit though, as unsanitary as this place may be and his abused mind having fun with what tricks Spiro could have been up to.

…

Holly was at a loss once more, sitting in the car with Butler and fighting over decisions that really wouldn't change anything.

"He expected you, you know?" Foaly said confidently through the helmet's speakers. "Why else would he have blocked any beams of any sort from penetrating the walls? All I could tell were the shape of rooms and that was only because I could read where the walls were thicker." And now, looking back, maybe not even that. Maybe he had been picking up the explosive. Then what were the walls coated it and why not hide the bomb material? "He's smarter than you're making him."

"He also seems to be outwitting you unless I'm reading the situation wrong."

Foaly stomped at Holly's outrageous comment. "He is not. He simply had better tools for this. I hadn't expected to have to highjack one of our satellites and do more than the scans I can get from the cam for a mission you shouldn't be on, Captain."

"Arguing is pointless," Butler chided them as if scolding little kids. "What we need is any link to Artemis that we can get. Right now I can't think of any."

"If that had been his laptop then there aren't any." Holly sighed, leaning back in the seat more so that she was slouched. She would never have done that if she was on a mission before but right now, as much as she was saved from the explosion, her magic had to heal a few bruises that she'd picked up and that was one thing she was running low on.

It also brought up only more questions. How did she survive that? Neither of the other two had **brought it up, not wanting to jinx something and that was just stupid. They were soldiers, most of them, not those people who sat and read what their horoscope that the day was going to show.**

She couldn't go check the area either because Spiro was likely watching it now.

"Since we're at a dead end, why don't we wait for Artemis to get us instead of spending all this time walking into traps trying to find him?" Foaly suggested. "If there's even a blip from him, he knows I could pick it up. There hasn't been anything."

Then someone knocked on the car door, making the inhabitants of the vehicle jump. Butler reached for his Sig, knowing no one had snuck up on them. He had been watching since the explosion. "_Foaly, who_," or what_ "is it?_"

"No idea. I'm not going to get satellite feed on you guys for another few seconds. By then you should-"

The door was being opened as Foaly finished that sentence, Butler not seeing anyone out the window and gun at the ready. Holly grabbed her weapon as well, pointing it at the center of the door where the person had to be hiding.

She was met with a pair of big blue eyes and dark hair that was on the body of a three year old.

"Da'vat!" Holly swore, just pulling her gun away before she shot Myles with what would have been a near fatal blow for someone his size. "How the heck did you get here?"

Myles just laughed, pointing at her. "You are a stupid head. I'm intellegent. There is a big difference."

The child backed away from the car and started to run up the hill, away from them. Holly was confused beyond belief as where he had come from but Butler, being wiser in the ways of children, dashed out after him.

"Myles, come back here!"

If the big man wasn't afraid of being seen then Holly shoved her own reserves away, getting out and catching up a few feet later where Butler had grabbed Myles, the child struggling in his arms like a fly would the arms of a bear. The size difference was so much it was actually hard for Butler to keep him still without hurting him.

"Let me go you dummy head! I have to go get Artemis!"

"You know where he is?" Holly wasn't serious with her question but it would at least calm the young human down without getting them more attention. Myles nodded and pointed up the hill.

"We gotta go up there."

"I'm sorry Myles, but Artemis isn't up there." Butler took the child and tried to calm him, patting his back as well as he could while trying to keep the bear-hug up.

"Yes he is dummy! The homeless man told me he was! He didn't lie!" Myles fought harder and left the other two only more confused. Holly, being more distant from the boy, came to her senses first.

"How did you get here? How did you know Artemis might be up there?"

"The homeless man, he dropped me off. He said you were a bunch of stupid head and that I was the smart one and I had to use my intelligence and save Artemis because you can't."

"Dropped you off where?"

"Lemme go!" Myles wasn't having any more questions, struggling more. On one of the turns Holly noticed something in his ear. She had to climb up Butler's frame to get to it, plucking it from its resting place while Myles was facing the other way while he struggled.

"Hey!" Myles reached for it when he felt her take it. "Give it back! I need that!"

Holly examined it. It was one of Foaly's devices though it seemed to be coated in something. It was an earpiece, for sure, one of the older ones that was made for those undercover when they couldn't wear the suits.

"Myles, where did you get this?" Had Spiro managed to make one of his own? Had he gotten to Myles and been trying to kill him before they had showed up and set the fireworks off early?

Even with all the whining and fighting, Myles wasn't crying. His blue, steady eyes looked at her while he tried what apparently was his next method of persuasion, since he knew he wasn't getting out of Butler's hold. "Give me it back and let me go. I know what I'm doing."

A three year old was trying to talk her down. That cold look in his eyes was reminiscent of someone else that they all knew very well.

"Answer our questions first Myles and Butler will let you go."

Butler gave her a look that said that he would not be letting him go but Holly ignored it. Myles, on the other hand, could reason better than most mudmen four times his age and shook his head. "Let me go now."

Holly taped her fingers against her arm for a few second before giving in. "Fine, let him go. He got this far on his own, I don't think he's going to be getting much farther. There's no crowd to lose him in now."

"But Holly." It was Butler's responsibility to watch the family. He'd already lost his charge and he wasn't about to let another Fowl down- in either definition of the word. It seemed the whole family was going to make it a goal of theirs to be able to slip through his fingers.

"We need answers and I think it would be better if we went in the car. Someone might see us."

That was a very good point but the moment Butler got up and tried moving again, Myles fought back. "No! We have to go up there!" He pointed up the hill again. "All you are just scared! Let me go then. All the bad stuff is gone and it's not going to 'spold on me, so let me go."

There was another new revelation. "How did you know it was going to explode?"

Myles shook his head. "I saw it. I've been watching a long time. I'm not like you stupid head and go in when I don't have the key."

Holly was even more confused than before the questions now and just sat down, inviting Butler to do the same. "He will let you go if you answer our question, you can even be let go first. Okay?"

Myles looked ready to sink his teeth into Butler, not that it would have done much and the idea itself looking like it wasn't to the three year olds liking. He nodded, Butler setting him down in the grass.

"You're getting my shorts dirty," Myles commented before looking at them. "Hurry up stupid heads. Artemis is in danger."

"We know that. There's nothing there anymore though Myles. You said so yourself, the place exploded."

Myles nodded as if verifying that for a third time, looking just as annoyed at having to do so. "And the psychopath that took Artemis did that. It's like with pirates. Its stupid and crude and I am not stupid."

"With pirates?" What did Artemis or Spiro have to do with pirates?

Myles sighed, looking at both of them and see that they weren't getting it. The homeless man had already told him where he was. "Pirates take their booty and they burry it, that way no one can steal it. Artemis is the treasure."


	10. Here We Go Again

**Chapter 10: Here We Go Again  
**

Artemis went back to working on his little toy in which he wasn't going to get any of the glory for making. After he had returned, Travis was a big help, considering that Artemis's fingers were still shaky for some time and he needed a steady hand for a lot of the work.

It only took an hour or two before he finished his creation.

The small thing took on an intelligence of its own. Artemis had actually created life—something he had no pleasure in doing on this occasion. The only purpose of this life form, which wasn't even fully a life form, was to entertain his captor until he could find a moment to escape.

"Oh wow." Travis reached forward, making Artemis wince as the man picked up the creation that looked much like a cockroach. It hadn't been tested, and from being in the elements, it had a high chance of dying off soon. He had stabilized its makeup but he hadn't done more than that.

"I can't believe you actually made this. I mean, I had the idea myself, but all I could achieve was the thinking capacity of it. I couldn't get it to actually take on shape, at least, not its own. It always had to be attached to something. Does it eat?"

"Yes and no. It has to consume a special formula every twelve hours or so. If it doesn't it won't function right." It wasn't that it wouldn't function—it would die. The poor thing was living yet he had no idea what kind of life it was. He would have felt worse if it hadn't been him that would have to pay the price for not creating anything. It was a small attack against nature. Compared to his other offenses, he hoped it would be overlooked.

Artemis went to the computer screen and merged the program with the signal that was coming from the bug now seated in the man's hand. In seconds he had Travis's own makeup on the screen, his heart rate, blood pressure, and everything else. The readings came from the sensors in the "bug's" feet. The rest of the room he controlled through the black head that was set on the insect-like body. It was not truly its head, more like one giant eye as the brain was placed in the protective covering of the body. Not that the bug needed much brainpower to think for itself either way. Artemis had to do a lot of rearranging to get the invention to actually work. An image of the room around them came up on the screen as well.

"Good." Artemis minimized the screen. "It seems to be working."

Travis was all but jumping up and down. "This is amazing! I've never seen anything like it! Think of what we can do with a walking thermal camera! If we can even make them more stable, we could even send them into space! Scatter them out like stars and explore who knows how many planets!"

"Calm yourself. They are barely advanced enough to survive on the Earth, let alone leave the atmosphere." Artemis walked over and retrieved the creature from Travis, who he was afraid would squish it in his elation.

While the work had kept his attention—which it had done countless times in his life since he was first able to rationally think out an equation and put it into a real life situation—he found himself fatigued, but not from being in need of sleep. His body hurt and he was hungry. He wanted rest.

Artemis took a scan of his own body with the bug, though it wasn't obvious to the cameras around him. He also kept the page on the computer screen small after he saw it flash. He placed the synthesized insect—for lack of a better appellation—inside a glass jar and turned to the scientist with him.

The man had helped a great deal. Artemis, however, needed more help then he could be given. There was something really wrong with him even if he couldn't identify it, but he could feel it. He needed to be conscious in order to plan and to explain so this little wonder, even as a misrepresentation of his true abilities, would not be destroyed or harmed by accident.

He also knew that he was having sudden difficulty seeing. His vision swayed, as did his body, and he elbowed the keyboard of the computer he was sitting in front of, knocking it off the counter as he fell to the floor. He may have protected himself or may not have—he wasn't sure. His head had already been causing him discomfort, and most of his thought processes had come to a standstill. His body was numb but the coldness of floor registered in his mind.

Travis ran over once he noticed the kid had passed out. Or he thought the kid had.

"Hey, boy." The man lifted the teen's head up and saw him wince behind closed eyelids. His head hung to the side and the rest of him lied limp. Artemis let out a breath but didn't answer him.

The kid was way too heavy for him to pick up. He was tiny, sure, and weighed next to nothing, but Travis was a small guy himself. If he tried, he might just drop the kid right back on the ground.

So he stayed there and tapped the side of the kid's face, trying to get him to come to.

"Hey. Come on. You there? You okay?"

Artemis's headache spiked and he closed his eyes more tightly, instinctively trying to escape the pain. It didn't work. He could think, but just barely. He had no ability to move even a finger. He faintly had a thought that he was getting this clothes dirty lying on the floor even though they were cheap and lightly worn already.

Even as he tried to speak, no words escaped him. It was hard to get his mind to remember which sounds formed what words. The cumbersome weight of what he was doing by giving more technology to Jon was obviously affecting him, considering there was nothing he could do now to hinder the research. Hopefully it would not go on without him, as he could not see himself functioning in any productive way for the near future if he could not even verbalize.

Despite the dark world around him, at least he was breathing, and with the more oxygen he took in from his few remaining sparks of consciousness, the more his already weary mind and body took drew in power..He could feel Travis trying to wake him, since Artemis had no idea who else would be in the area. However, it didn't do much more than create another spark of selflessness while five more vanished. It was a losing battle.

Artemis reached out with one of his hands and touched the man, grabbing onto his coat before he could lose even those few strands of reality to pain and darkness.

Travis didn't know what to do with the boy—_not Artemis, no names, he didn't want names or… or anything that would make him seem human_. The kid had obviously not only failed to come to but went completely unresponsive.

He wasn't going to let the jar break though. He didn't know how the teen had held onto it in his fall, but it lay in his lap with a hand holding it unmoving and open at his side. Travis picked it up, studying the insect inside.

It would be incredible if he could get it out to the world, to the scientists who would, like himself, use it to improve and study this world and who knows how many others.

But that could only happen if he were free, which he wasn't—not anymore than the technology in the jar was. If anything, he was maybe even less free.

He stood, taking the jar with him and leaving the boy. Travis wasn't a doctor. He'd probably be able to identify some abnormalities if he saw them on a screen, but most, if not all, of his research concerned the brain and technology like this.

Walking through the lab and up to the door—which was where he had to call Mr. Spiro from when he found something or needed anything—he hit the button and waited for the static to end and a voice to take its place.

"_Yes?_" Travis could swear there was annoyance in that static.

"Um… something here you should see and… the boy… there's something wrong with him. He should probably… He's not conscious." Travis almost made the mistake of telling Jon Spiro what he should do. That would have been his last mistake.

Spiro sighed, pressing the button down and putting the speaker to his mouth so that he was heard clearly. "Stay where you are and do not move. If Arty made something you're bound to screw it up some way or another and I don't need that."

Spiro put the transmitter back into his pocket and looked around the room as if he were evaluating a dozen or so invisible people. So Arty was sick again. He wasn't going to waste resources on a broken toy. Something was in the lab right now that needed his attention more than the boy did, and he really wanted to know what it was.

His silent bodyguard needed no call as he followed him into the other, less comfortable, area of his underground hideaway.

Pushing open the door to the lab after a retinal and finger scan along with a weight sensor test, he was met with the scrawny man who was going to assist with his new rise to power.

"You had something to show me?"

Travis held the jar out but his eyes darted behind the counter, towards the back of the room where the boy was unconscious, and also where the computer that contained all the data from this life form was located.

"Life. Kind of. Come with me and let me explain."

Spiro did. Life. Now that wasn't at all exciting. Life had already been created and could be manipulated far more easily than it could be made, reproducing it was even more simple to do.

Arty had better have made something worth his time otherwise the toy he had now would be dealt with the way all other broken toys were.

….

….

?

6:21PM

It was dark. But that wasn't the problem. The little annoying voice at his side was the problem. He was tempted to let the first stages of the plan fall apart because of it.

He never liked dealing with a Fowl.

…

….

Holly had no idea what they were doing sitting on the ground, still a good ways off from the site of the explosion. Foaly, unlike Holly and Butler, had nothing better to do with his time than to scan the area.

There was the inkling in the back of the centaur's mind that maybe he had missed something. He certainly wasn't going to be shown up by a three year old.

All his scans were coming up negative though. He'd even scanned the area to see if he could find anymore explosives. Sure, mudmen were crude and their plastic explosives wouldn't have come up on his scans anyway, even if he had tried to search for them specifically… but still. That was an amateur's mistake and he was no amateur.

Nothing. A whole lot of nothing. And from the conversation he had listened in on—though Foaly wasn't making himself a part of, since no Fowl needed to know more about the magical community under their feet than they already did—he knew Myles wasn't revealing how he got his information or how the boy had even arrived there.

Foaly hadn't been paying much attention to the little ones with Artemis being the larger hazard. Maybe he should have been watching after all.

…

Myles wasn't sitting in the grass anymore; he was standing and looking at the ruins of the building with intensity.

Holly and Butler were on watch in order to keep the little guy from running over to them. Who knew if there were more explosives somewhere, meant to be set off if there were any survivors.

They may have risked looking over Myles's little hint about where Artemis was if it wasn't for that fear. Foaly was their only link yet he had remained silent.

"Can you at least tell us how you got here?" Butler asked for a third time.

"I don't know." Myles agitatedly stomped one of his tiny, finely dressed feet on the ground. "It was dark. I think maybe by car but maybe not."

"Do you remember anything?"

Myles's eyes leveled into something that looked far too much like it was coming from Artemis. "It was dark."

"Right, Myles, but you were at the airport with us. Start from the beginning and tell us what happened."

"I ran away from you stupid head. Some weird homeless guy found me. There was water or something. I think I fell asleep. Then it was just dark, and I heard talking and I knew where Artemis was. I had to find him but then you went and blew it up!"

Someone kidnapped him? And just let him go? Like that? There had to be a reason and Butler wasn't seeing one unless there was a bug or something on the boy.

"Come here." He picked Myles back up, much to the boy's displeasure, and inspected the lining, stitching and every inch of clothing he had on him before checking through the strands of his hair.

"Hey!" Myles tried to bat him away but the boy was no match for the bodyguard.

Butler's search came up with nothing. The boy didn't even have a scratch on him that might have signified where he had been or how he had been treated.

"So you don't remember anything else? What about this man you saw? What did he look like?" That might be helpful. If it was one of Spiro's men though, why let him go? If it was a friend, why not come with the boy? Myles was intelligent, but he couldn't have gotten all this way on his own.

"Big. Dark hair." Myles shrugged. "It got dark after that and when he talked with me, I couldn't see."

"Were you blindfolded?"

Myles let out a sigh, also reminiscent of his brother's. "I'd have said if I was. It was just dark. The man wasn't scary though."

That didn't really narrow things down but Butler had no other questions that someone Myles's age would understand. He picked the boy up and went to the car. He wasn't going to let him be taken a third time. He couldn't find Artemis, and he couldn't go back to the building, but he could at least protect the one in front of him.

"Hey, wait! What about Artemis?" Myles was beyond astounded that he was telling them where his brother was and they were taking him away.

"He's not there Myles. Artemis has some really smart friends and they know there's nothing there. If there is, and we find him, then you're going to be staying in the car. We don't need you getting into anymore trouble."

"Trouble? I wasn't in trouble. I was the smart one who found out everything. You were the stupid heads! Now let… me… go."

The small hands batting at Butler didn't bother him in the least and he got in the car with the boy with Holly following close behind.

The twins didn't know about fairies but with their age, the odds that they would remember them were slim. It was chancy, but to a child's eyes he could pass her off as a delusion made from seeing another, strange child, that he never had before. Worry did that to a person sometimes. While he'd hate to use that excuse, there wasn't much else he could do since parting with Holly right now would cut him off from all the resources he could use to find Artemis.

Myles wasn't much happier in the car than he had been outside but at least he wasn't complaining about his shorts now.

"So, Foaly, anything?"

"_Not a thing,_" came Foaly's voice over the communicator. There was absolutely nothing registering down there. "_Which means you better go have a look. Be careful though, Holly. You do need to come back in one piece to get fired."_

Holly was confused. "I thought you said there was nothing there?"

"_There isn't_," Foaly agreed. "_Which is the problem. It looks like someone was trying to send a repeat signal of the foundation under the building, making it seem as if nothing was there but that's just what it is. All my scans can pick up the signal and nothing else so, really, it could be anything. It took me a few minutes to realize that the signal was being sent to me more than once of the exact same minerals, but whoever did it didn't think that anyone would look past that. I can't offer you any heat scans or anything until you get an Omnisensor on one of their cables. Until then, the mystery is all yours."_

And Foaly really didn't like that. She went in blind when she could see the building and it had nearly killed her. She was now going in blind not even knowing where the door was.

"And the likelihood that Artemis is down there?"

"_The likelihood of it being one of Spiro's little hideouts is the highest. It was under the building he planted us at. That, or he purposely led us here to keep looking, find some underground gas mine, and destroy us all while we thought we were getting further. It's up to you to pick whether you go in or not. I have no advice this time other than to be careful and try not to blow anything up."_

"How very reassuring."

"_I try my best."_

Holly looked at Butler, putting the helmet back on. She had enough magic to use for shielding but any other form of magical backup she could supply would be spent in just a short amount of time. The manservant would have to be the one to check the grounds, as her Neutrino was too dangerous to use in this situation.

"I better go and find a shovel then."

….

…

Artemis awoke in a bed, though he wasn't very comfortable and he found himself beyond hungry. He sat up, his head hurting as if someone had branded the inside with a hot iron. Despite the darkness of the room, he was able to make out the furnishings he had seen during his first awakening here. He was back in the room made just for him then.

That gave Artemis time to think, which he desperately needed to do. He had no idea how long he'd been unconscious and how long Jon had had to play with his new little toy until he wanted more.

So Artemis sat there, crossed his legs and held his hands loose, taking in a breath.

And started planning.

He didn't care about the reminiscent thought that this situation was playing out very similarly to the last time, because there was one distinct difference. He hadn't been alone last time and Jon Spiro hadn't known who he was up against.

It was little more than an hour later when a bright light burning his eyes interrupted him— his mouth stilling as his half-worded thoughts ended. Spiro walked in with all the heartiness of a lion in his gaze.

"Well, Arty, I see you're awake. You're bug has been quite fascinating. Its production was just enough for me to decide not to kill you. It's not all that impressive though. You will have to admit, my little spy cameras are much more useful."

"For spying alone. They have no means of thought processing within in them. You can see but you can't analyze with your cameras. Neither can they move to gather data. This one will."

"Will is the key word in that sentence, Arty. As of right now, it won't be useful to me at all unless I could use it within twelve hours and be done with it. That just won't do. I need its life cycle to be longer, or for it not to run on food. I'm sure you could find a way of incorporating our research to make that possible. That is, if you haven't been thinking of how to already. I know you, Arty. This… this isn't the best you can do."

"In my current state, I'm afraid that it is. This is not how you treat someone that you're trying to get information from."

"If I treated you now as well as I did back then, I'd have nothing to show for it. You're too stubborn for you own good. Your brother isn't much different. I don't think either of you would like it very much if, say, no one was allowed to enter or leave the room he is in now. Three days at the most, is how long I would think would be he able to survive. Then again, he is a child. Maybe two at the point."

"Don't! I'm _trying_ to help you. You can clearly see that. I don't pass out of my own accord!" A part of Artemis started to panic, and he knew that was what Spiro wanted. He didn't have the option to portray his feelings though, as Jon could just use that as an excuse to get rid of his brother.

"No," Spiro had to agree. "You don't. I've had someone prepare a meal for you. I suggest you eat and then I want to see what you're really capable of. Until then, I think I'm going to put my plan into action. Three days, Artemis, just to be sure. Make me something impressive in three days or you won't have a little brother to hold you back anymore."

The door closed and Artemis felt more weight fall onto his shoulders. How could he sacrifice the life of any child, let alone his brother? But Spiro couldn't even be allowed the research he already had placed in his fingertips. There just wasn't time for this.

Rubbing his temple, Artemis tried to banish his damnable headache. He had to change his plans. While he didn't think he himself would last much longer like this, he had been willing to try something more likely to succeed. However, that would take too much time now.

Nero, Spiro's new bodyguard, came in soon afterwards. With him was a tray of meat and some carrots along with a glass of what Artemis was certain was fruit punch. It was a child's meal really, and for a second Artemis didn't know if it was being used to demean him or if they were giving him the food that was supposed to go to his brother.

Either reasoning, particularly the second, left a sour taste in his mouth. Nero left soon after he placed the food down on the bed and Artemis knew he would have to eat it. He needed to be robust and to be thinking clearly.

Even after the first bite and as much as his stomach urged him on, with all the possibilities of where it had come from, he couldn't eat it.

"We'll both die if I keep acting like this, "Artemis said aloud, trying to convince himself into eating. It didn't work. He hadn't eaten since… that measly sandwich from before. The hunger was likely handicapping him significantly. His brother had eaten. His brother was fine. Beckett wasn't going to die unless Artemis couldn't pull himself together.


	11. A New Plan

**Chapter 11: A New Plan**

The shovel comment had been made as a joke but as Holly and Butler made their way over the ruins of the building, she found it wasn't so much. They really did need something to break up the floor, since the explosion only seemed to have destroyed the walls and ceiling.

She didn't like it, but Holly had to pull out her weapon. She motioned Butler away without a word as she took a step back with him. She wasn't going to be foolish this time. Holly knew that it hadn't really been her fault before. She couldn't have known or guessed the walls were laced with explosives, but she could at least learn from her mistakes. She moved the setting up as high as it could go and aimed for a spot a good fifteen feet in front of her. "Brace yourself."

Butler did as he was told, bending down and going to shield her as well. Holly had a much smaller frame and if there were any radial effects, she would be blown away long before he was.

Holly didn't really like Butler going to protect her but she didn't like waiting anymore either. This was driving her crazy. Most of what was bothering her was Artemis. Stupid, arrogant Artemis. He thought he could do everything on his own. He was always like that, keeping secrets, following his own plan. But she didn't want to see him dead. Artemis could plan but how far in advance? Myles and Beckett were taken and that there showed that even the boy genius didn't know everything.

She used her anger as a guard against her fear as she fired at the ground. She really had been expecting an explosion. She didn't get it.

The floor, as it became obvious it was more than just wood and tile, started to melt under the heat of the beam. She let go of the trigger, going over to the gouge now there. "It's cement." That wasn't too surprising. She'd seen many houses on the surface have a cement foundation.

Butler met her eyes as Holly turned to him. They could just melt their way inside but that would be picked up on by almost any kind of censor that was out there. If there was a way in, it was hidden, and it would take a long time to find. They had two options now and she knew which one she preferred. They had stormed the castle before, with terrifying results. She could try again, hope for something better, or they could get on their hands and knees and try to find a secret entrance that someone who had outsmarted Artemis had hidden.

That didn't leave the decision a hard one to make. Holly aimed her blaster back at the hole, weaving it back and forth so it would be large enough for Butler to enter as well.

In the meantime Foaly was off, stomping his hooves in nervous tension. Holly really knew how to make him worry. Once he had a connection on the inside though, they wouldn't be so helpless. He only hoped that they'd survive until they were able to hook him up.

…

…

Artemis had made himself eat. He did so while he created his new and far more risky plan. He would put his brother in danger to complete this, and he would need to have almost a day to have to have things in place. To set them in motion wouldn't take nearly as long but the thought alone that he was the one making Beckett suffer with him was bothering him more than Artemis thought it could.

It was his fight, not theirs. They were just children still. Artemis had never been a very vengeful person, hate was not productive to the working mind, but if it was the very last thing he did, he was going to make Jon wish he had never met him.

He was very tempted to swat the empty plate away, hoping it and the glass would shatter. That would be letting Jon get to him though. Artemis wasn't that childish and it wasn't time for that yet. He knew he was far from being defeated. He had lost a few battles, but the war was going to be his.

Spiro came in not too much later. There was of course a camera in the room he had Arty situated in. "Are we feeling better now? You do have a deadline to meet so if I were you, which would never happen, I would get up and show me what you're really capable of. I wouldn't even mind another cube. You made it once, I'm sure you could do it again."

"I can't." Artemis spoke with truth behind his words. "It wasn't solely made by me. As with the beetle you know have, I had help in the components. It also took me months."

"You don't have months and I did give you a rather talented assistant. You don't have to make it for me now- you have time. Don't think I'll ever let you leave here. Your brother I will free, after you've made me something I can use, something that people would pay millions to own themselves. I want to rule this world, and I will. I'll have to do it in the shadows for a while, at least until I get a new identity set up with legitimate funding from this experiment. No thanks to you." Spiro took a few steps over to the bed, to the young man there who was going to help his dreams become real where the same child had thrown him back to square one. "You will help me make my empire."

Artemis went to speak when something in his mind made him stop. At first, he wasn't sure what it was. He was very good at speaking to those who thought they knew everything. Some would say it was a great talent of his at how fast he could anger those around him. The words died before he could finish thinking them though, and Artemis had to frown.

Spiro, on the other hand, had a serpent's smile crawl its way across his face. "Are we learning our lesson, Arty? We wouldn't want to have to go back to the chair now, would we?"

Artemis's hand automatically went to his arm, feeling the burned flesh there. It hurt, it had hurt since the first day when the metal had been seared into his skin. His mind didn't need much more than the unconscious reaction to figure out what was wrong.

Spiro laughed as the recognition hit him. "Yes, Arty. You're going to be mine and you are going to do what I say or you will be punished. If you won't do it for your brother, once he is free, I'm sure you will follow me, simply to stop the pain. Any rational person would."

It was sick. Spiro was training him like some type of dog with a shock collar, only a much more painful one.

Spiro took in the last few steps. "Come with me now, Arty, for your brother. I'm sure in the next forty-eight hours you'll make something that I'll really enjoy. You then have a week to make something that even outshines that and your brother can go free."

The world or his brother? Artemis could, of course, make something to satisfy that requirement without relying on his plans. It would make it so Beckett would get to eat, but it would put more power in Spiro's hands. If he was able to market it before Artemis had time to fight back…

No. He had a plan and he was going to follow it, regardless of his feelings. He pushed off the bed and stood. He at lest wouldn't make the demands worse than they currently were. He'd put on a show, if only just for Jon.

Spiro's self-righteous smile never left his face. He stood aside and turned, waiting as if for Artemis to stand at his side. The servant of his wasn't far and there wasn't much the scrawny teen could do to him even without the help. Spiro wasn't in the best of shape still, but prison and prescription drugs had kept him fit and far more ready to take on someone a foot shorter and a few dozens pounds less weight on him.

As for Artemis, he wasn't going to give in so easily. He kept a wary eye on Mr. Nero and a good foot or so separating himself from Jon. He stayed there, near defiance in his eyes. He'd comply, but he'd only comply so far. There wasn't much that Jon could do now that he'd sworn no one would enter Beckett's room. Violence against his brother then wasn't a very liable consequence.

"Some fight in you is good. I like you to be more than a brainless fool who only follows my shadow for their own benefit. I just hate the brainless part, so don't push it." Spiro walked out of the room. Artemis followed behind him, feeling strangely like a dog on a leach. The comparison wasn't so far off as far as he was concerned. Spiro was making him his dog.

They made it back to the laboratory and Artemis had to wonder again if what Jon had said earlier was true. Holly and Butler, on their own, were competent enough. She'd rescued him before, on her own. She may have been a fighter more than a planner but there was a difference between his own standpoint and hers. He didn't have anyone to speak to, to plan and bounce ideas off of. She, on the other hand, had Foaly and his dear friend with her.

Spiro waited as they went down the hall. He past several closed doors, all metal and sealed off so he couldn't tell what was behind him. The security that surrounded the lab on the other hand did catch his attention. Spiro hadn't made many improvements in this area, but then again, he hadn't really needed to. Artemis was as good as under lock and key this time, and there seemed to be cameras in every corner of the room.

He was sure there were many he wasn't seeing, as the sterile environment around him had plants as well every few feet.

Spiro typed in a code that Artemis had trouble seeing from his spot behind him. After the door opened and he was shoved it, it was closed behind him, a few words making it inside. "Remember, I want something amazing."

Amazing. Artemis could pull off amazing. The issue was if he could do what he needed in the time he had, and he had to hope no outside factor would destroy what fragile plans he had built up.

….

Holly noticed when her battery was starting to deplete that this wasn't going to happen. She had a hole now, about eight feet down and just wide enough for her, and it kept going still. She lifted her finger from the trigger and flipped her helmet up.

"Foaly, this isn't working." Holly had no idea how deep the concrete went. If she used much more power she wasn't going to have much left from the solar battery inside. She'd let it charge for now but the little progress she made took nearly two hours. "I'd be surprised if they didn't see us coming by the time I actually find anything."

"I don't know," the centaur's voice spoke close to her ear. "A strong explosion will get you where you need to go but I can't say what the consequences would be. Either keep blasting away or find some other way in. I'm not a miracle worker here. I have no eyes. The best information I can give you is that whatever's under there is less than one hundred feet deep. I can see where the signal fades out, but nothing more than that." He stomped around, finding his technology was making him no progress in this situation. "What is keeping my signal out? The mudmen are just not this good. Even Fowl Manor is like an open book."

That was a good point but Holly didn't know how much Artemis was actively trying to fight against Spiro. The most they knew was from Myles and that really wasn't much. The security at the Manor was something Foaly had devoted days to make sure he'd bypassed. They were on day three now and they only just had some idea of something that may or may not be there, all on the words of a three year old and some glitchy signals.

Butler sat, folding his hands in front of him and staring at the hole. "Maybe we should wait. You're right. This attack shouldn't have gone unnoticed if there was security here. There has to be. Spiro doesn't seem the type of man to trust that he's bested his enemies. That means that we're being watched right now. If we sit and wait, someone will come to us."

That was a good point. If someone came, they would know this was where Artemis was being held, or at least that they were close enough to Sprio that he was worried enough to keep an eye on them. Keeping ones enemies close was always a smart move, as long as you were sure you could outwit them.

Holly nodded to Butler. It wouldn't do much but her sweater was inside the car. She could wear it, hopefully just long enough to fool anyone watching them. Right now her ears and more obvious features were hidden under her helmet and suit, as they had been since the moment she arrived. "I'll be right back."

Butler only nodded, keeping small, keen eyes on the world around them. If anyone was going to be coming for them, he wanted to make sure he saw them at the same time they would see him, since there was no chance of him spotting any danger before it was on them with no cover.

Making her way through the rubble once more, Holly made it to the car. She opened the door, grabbing the sweater off the seat and looking around. Oh, that was just great.

"Butler," she called out, no fear of any of this being seen or overheard. It wasn't anything that wouldn't have already been captured anyway, by eyes or a camera. "We have a problem."

Butler could just barely hear her. He'd made sure he'd parked far enough away that the vehicle could be used to escape and not caught up in any fire-fights or giant trolls coming down on it. He stood, making his way over to her because he wasn't going to shout across the distance. He stood beside the car that the elf was now sitting in, her helmet off and her eyes closed. He saw right away what caught her attention.

"Myles…"

"Gone," Holly admitted. "D'arvit. Foaly is looking around now but he hasn't picked up on anything within fifty meters."

"Why did we leave him alone?" Butler thought aloud to nobody. Artemis may have been his original charge but the twins had taken over in his place while he had been gone. Even with his return, that hadn't changed anything. Now, with one already missing and Artemis gone as well, he'd let the one person he was responsible for slip right though his fingers.

"I don't think anyone took him." Holly tapped the car. "We had the doors locked. It would have been obvious if they were picked, though I'm sure anyone could have spoken to him from outside and coaxed him out. That, or he walked off on his own." Holly knew how upset the boy must be, but he still was a child, barely a few years of this world.

"We have to go find him."

Holly had no arguments there. They were replacing one rescue mission for another, but there was no way for sure to know where Artemis was and, even if they did, no way to get to him.

"I'll see if I can't find him. I'm faster than you." Holly stripped off the sweater, shielding herself before setting foot outside the car and extending her wings. "I'll come find you the minute I know anything."

Butler nodded but to anyone watching, there was no one there for him to be talking to, so he kept his mouth shut. He had to hope she'd find him. He had already let all of them down- he couldn't do so again.

…

Artemis stared at the computer screen, seeing what he could work with. He had a few files on the program he had invented to go along with the insectoid. He made sure that there were no screen sharing settings and that anyone who tried to view the program working off of another computer saw nothing but static. He would have added in a virus if he hadn't had the suspicious that Jon was the one watching him.

That meant the only ones who could see the screen were the cameras around the room, Travis, and Artemis himself. He kept one of the screens small, near center so his body or the angle was blocking any wandering eye.

He couldn't make sense of what he was seeing though. Absently almost, he took one of his hands away from the keyboard and stared at his own fingertips. Artemis had made a lot of wondrous and equally dangerous inventions of his own. He had though, never once, turned those on himself. Messing with his own being was only asking for trouble, and Artemis rarely felt he needed to change anything that wasn't already in his control. In his own mind, he was perfect. What he lacked in muscle he made up for with Butler.

He was looking at his genetic makeup on the screen though and noticed several things that just did not make sense. His blood type was what concerned him.

Artemis knew his blood type, at least when he'd last seen it under a scope and for all the years before, had been O, RH positive. He was now missing the antigen, it seemed, that had given him positive blood. He wasn't sure how that was even possible and the 'O' on the screen was in red, stating further testing was necessary. It should have been able to scan him perfectly fine.

He would have to deal with this later. Artemis exited the window and went back to his projects. He had to finish this first. Beckett needed him.

…

Holly and Butler had no success. They convened once more at the car, hours later, when both had exhausted all their leads.

"It's not your fault," Holly spoke up before the big man could say anything. She knew how he had to be feeling and right now blaming themselves was the least productive thing they could do.

"I shouldn't have left him alone. He was already taken and we lost him once. This is the third time in only a few days. I was supposed to be protecting him."

"You did. He was in a locked car and it's pretty obvious no one broke in. That whole building blew up. I would have been surprised if you had left him anywhere except the car."

"And what if they predicted that?"

Holly couldn't fight him back there. It was possible that someone was watching them and had taken Myles. He'd been returned once so it was still fair game to take him again if they left the guard down. Someone already had him though, after the airport, so maybe it was more than that. Maybe he was a plant.

"I don't know if we should keep trying to get through the cement. It might be a diversion."

There were a few moments of silence that was only broken by the wind and the sounds of the ocean. Holly was the one that broke it. "I don't think there's much more we can do."

"If it's a diversion, it's at least something. I'm going to stay here." Butler didn't know what Artemis was up to but he knew his charge well over the past few years. He was smart but sometimes those smarts landed him in trouble. As far as talent went, he had enough for most of the continent when it came to brains alone. And smarts couldn't always save him. Artemis needed him. Butler knew it, somehow.

Holly didn't have the same unwavering faith. "I'll be back then. I need to recharge. I shouldn't be gone more than a few hours."

Butler nodded, knowing they would need as much of her magic as they could get. He also knew that now he was forsaking Myles as well. There was just no way to find any of the missing Fowls. "You're not supposed to be helping us, are you? How much longer can I count on you?"

Holly turned, her helmet closing over her face. "As long as you need it. I'm on radio silence right now with HQ. Foaly is routing to me through another line. They won't be happy, but they never are."

Butler smiled as the small form took off, vanishing into the brightening sky. It was nice to have friends to count on. Now if only Artemis could understand that.


	12. Deadlines

I know, I really need to catch up on writing my own stories. I've been so bad since starting that really, REALLY long co-op one.  
This one is almost done so all other updates should be for this.  
Again... sorry.

* * *

**Chapter 12: Deadlines**

Artemis smiled. The Beatle, as he un-inventively named it, was finished. It could now function and eat on its own for about two weeks. That was as far as he could extend the life for now. Any more and he would need more time and more materials.

Spiro didn't take long to walk in and observe what was going on, taking a more active role in the development. Artemis didn't mind. He was playing a waiting game that he wasn't too happy he was playing with pieces that he couldn't see. It wasn't just chess without the game board, it was chess against a strong opponent when he couldn't see what pieces had been taken off the board and which had moved on their own.

He handed the unfortunate invention over to the man. At least he hadn't given it enough brainpower to do anything more than the set functions it was made to do, and suppress it's own. If it was killed, it wouldn't feel pain. Spiro didn't seem to care much for the extras such as that Artemis has added onto it, but neither was in a spot to argue with the other.

"Well Arty, this is really something. Inexpensive and I'm sure with you, I can mass-produce these. Better yet they don't last. I'll never be at a need for clients." Spiro chuckled heartily to himself, even if he had no part in this success.

"My brother?" Artemis had kept up his end of the bargain. He'd forced the two days but he'd had to… if Beckett were older, he'd understand.

"Yes, yes, yes. Your brother will be just fine." Spiro waved him off as if he were discussing a few bucks he was short in payment. "I'll call it in after. You have to make me more of these."

Artemis clenched a fist at his side that he quickly relaxed as he let out a breath. "It'll take some time. They aren't overly difficult for someone like me to make, but anyone else behind the controls and you're going to lose specs. I can maybe make five a day."

Spiro tutted him. "Now, now, Arty, you're here to make me money, not cost me it. Travis here can help you and I'm sure I can get more like twenty. That'll be enough to start at least. I have to field test them first and I think I know just the person who would like to have a go at it."

"I don't really care what you do with them. Just keep your promise."

"Of course, little Arty. If I didn't how would I expect good results from you?" The man walked over to him, his bodyguard not far behind. Artemis couldn't do a thing but take a step back when a finger was placed under his eye.

"You've helped me with my military needs, now I want to know this. I don't care if you're partner isn't here. You have this man, and if you need more, I can get more. To change your own eye color… it's amazing. I can't even imagine how you came about it the first time. You better not disappoint me."

"I've already told you its impossible. The information is lost." And had been lost to humans for a very long time.

"And I've told you I don't care. Make it happen." Spiro put his hand together and clapped. "Now, get those machines done by the end of the day. I have a few phone calls to make."

Artemis watched him walk out of the room before he fell to his knees. A hand went to his stomach and Artemis groaned to himself. He hadn't been eating the last few days, though the very idea was foolish on a whole new level. He wasn't able to. Thinking about where it had come from made him sick enough that he was sure, even if he managed some, he wouldn't be able to hold the food down more than the meager amount he had managed.

…

…

Holly, for the first time since Butler had called her here, was debating whether or not to go back. They had nothing. The big man had tried to get though the ground since there wasn't much to do, and had. After the ten feet of cement there was nothing but mud and worms. It had to be some kind of trick set up to waste their time, but Holly didn't have the heart to say anything to him.

They both knew the truth, and that was enough. There was no way they could find Artemis, not with nothing to go on, and Myles was long gone. Whoever had him obviously didn't plan on returning him this time.

"What should we do?" She didn't mean to sound as defeated as she did but the words came out as weary as she was.

"I'm not sure." They were still nearby, holdup in the van that Butler was still renting. He had no idea what to do. There was nothing else to even try, on the slim chance of success. "Anything from Foaly?"

Holly shook her head. "He can't find a thing." There were a few moments of silence before she spoke up again. "There are billions of you mudmen here. The chances of finding three of them, when someone doesn't want us to, are near impossible."

"I know. But I just can't give up. I waited for Artemis for three years. Half a week in this car isn't the worst I've gone through."

Holly didn't like remembering the years here she had missed. To a fairy, they were nothing though. One could go off for years and count it as an extended vacation with how long lived they were. It was different for the mudmen.

Artemis has also saved her life on that trip, even if he had not so long after stolen from her. She didn't know if one made up for the other but she couldn't forget.

She also couldn't wait three years here for the off chance that Artemis might make some sort of move on his own to show them where he was.

"Tomorrow, if we don't find anything, I'm going to report in."

Butler nodded, not saying anything to her admission. She knew he was absolutely tortured about losing the three of them, but there was nothing she could do about it, and she couldn't keep him company forever.

The silence stretched in the car for minutes later. She didn't think it was uncomfortable, but it was a hopeless type of silence. So many times all three of them had saved the lives of one another but Artemis was always the center point. He was the one that called them together, the one that usually got them into danger to begin with, and the one that always got them right back out of it. The world was likely better off for Artemis, though she'd never tell him that.

He couldn't be gone. If he was taken, and if he wasn't alive anymore, there was no reason that they wouldn't know by now. So he was out there, planning something that was likely to get them all in a lot of trouble.

Butler moved his hands to the steering wheel and started the van. It surprised Holly, what the conversation they just had.

"What are you doing?"

"Getting out of here. We have company and they don't look friendly."

…

…

In the darkness the commotion wasn't going unnoticed. Shoot. He looked back, not sure what to do with the half formed plans he now had. He hadn't been ordered around in some time. Best to probably help with the noise then. There was nothing else to do here.

…

…

Artemis was grateful for Travis. The man wasn't the worst to be locked down here with and as he drank the water, he was finding that he was able to concentrate better. He still needed food but for now, this would do.

"Um… hey. They've been feeding you, haven't they?"

Artemis looked up into the man's too blue eyes. He was foreign. It was obvious with the slight accent to his English. Maybe he was local to France.

Slowly, as to not make the headache worse, Artemis nodded. "I haven't been feeling well and have had no appetite." True enough, and as much as he was going to tell. It was more than obvious the man had been trying to keep his distance from him, and Artemis didn't blame him. Doing anything wrong here meant severe punishment, and as long as he wasn't too close, odds were Travis wouldn't get reprimanded for any of Artemis's failures.

Failures to Jon Spiro at least.

"How long have you been here?" Artemis asked in turn. Spiro couldn't have been out of jail for more than a year. To set all this up in that time meant he was working on it behind bars.

Travis shrugged, looking nervous. "I don't know. There aren't really… days here. The only time I can see is when I'm allowed in front of the computer. That's hoping they have a toolbar since none link out of here. Maybe… six months? I'm not sure. I've only been allowed in the lab for the last two I think."

Artemis stood, putting the drink on the counter and fixing his ill-suited clothes as best as possible.

Without sun, without time, and without a day, down in the artificial light of this place, must have been taxing. Artemis found himself craving fresh air for the last few days. He didn't know how well he'd have held up here for that long. And this was coming from him, a boy who hated to leave his room for anything other than research.

"If I had known he wasn't in jail, I likely would have looked into him and his new projects. It had never come to my attention."

Artemis wasn't sure but it almost looked like Travis was holding back laughter. "You- you think you can take him on? I'm sorry, I don't mean to sound… mean but, you can't. You're smart, I know, but he's a killer. There were three others with me. They're not here anymore. Just try and get by. That's all I can say."

"I do not _try_ and get by, and I do not kneel to a lesser being." Artemis took a breath. "We're both just stuck in stalemate right now. The tides will turn." He let a sly smile come across his face. There might have been hardships, but if he still had his knight in play, the game wasn't over just yet. "When the time comes, you'll see."

…

…

Butler was driving way too fast down the urban roads but Holly couldn't blame him. There were five other dark vehicles chasing after them, one of the tires on the rental already gone.

"I can take out the first two but I can't be sure they won't lose control and crash into one of these houses."

Butler turned the wheel, hard, to keep them from doing exactly that as they turned. "Wait. There should be an open space at some point if we keep driving away from the coast. Get ready."

Holly nodded beside him. He didn't have to tell her that.

There weren't much words shared over the next ten minutes that felt like much longer. Adrenaline had a way of slowing the whole world down so only you and the danger before you existed.

With the window open as she waited for her chance, Holly decided she should ask. "Why are they after us?"

"I don't know."

So they both figured it was for the same reason. If they weren't near Artemis, or maybe even if they were, it was clear that Jon Spiro was attempting to take them out of the equation.

That or one of their many other enemies had picked a really bad time to make their move.

Before Holly could do anything though, the lead vehicle stopped. Just stopped. It had been going near the speed they were and lurched forward for a moment before it settled back into the dirt and a plum of dust rose around it.

The one behind it didn't have time to stop and went skidding into the van, forcing it forward and making it flip, glass and dust littering the roadway as they sped further off and out of sight.

"Did you see what that was?"

"Maybe a mine." Butler's hands tightened more, the knuckles white. "But why is the better question."

A mine. On the coast? Where all these tourists were?

"At least they seem to be on our side."

"Or they were aiming for us to begin with and I happened to drive around it."

Holly swallowed. Right. At leas they only had three other vehicles to deal with now though. She shut her helmet, ready to take care of those herself. "Meet me back near the explosion. I don't know if it means anything but something is going on and I think it has to do with Artemis."

…

...

Spiro waited, biding his time. He grinned to himself at his own success. Little Arty was going to be all his. His brother would be too. Maybe he could even see if he could acquire a few more precious gems to this project.

There was so much he could gain that Spiro only saw the end result. Whatever he had to do to get there, to be back on top, was worth it. He'd rule the world from the underbelly of it and there was no one left out there to stop him. The police, the government, and even little Artemis Fowl had all failed in shutting him down. He was untouchable. He was the future of this world.

Watching the clock, Spiro waited away the hours. So much waiting, so little progress. He'd have to fix that. Once he was back, once every one again knew his name, there wouldn't be any such waiting.

Midnight came. He had said night but even he wasn't a fool. It would take some time and this was as long as those two were getting. He'd see where eleven hours had landed them.

Mr. Nero was no small price himself, but he was invaluable. The man did every little thing he said and, unlike his past guards, he was no fool. Every word out of his mouth was like god's word to this man and he couldn't' be happier. He'd be jumping for joy if he was any younger. His perfect setup and it hadn't taken him nearly as long as he thought it would.

Throwing a pill into his mouth, he swallowed and left the room. Now, if Arty was as smart as he thought he was, there was going to be a way he could fix up his own body, make himself the god he was. Then again, there wasn't much to fix.

It was profit. It was all going to be profit.

"Hello," Spiro spoke cordially as he stood back into his lab. He didn't really like the place. It smelled of burning electronics and disinfectant. "How are we doing?"

He watched several things on the computer screen in front of little Arty get shut as the teen turned, knowing eyes that annoyed him more than anything staring him down. Mocking him. Not for long.

He watched the Irish teen try and figure out how much time had past, enjoying as the sickening look of fear seemed to come over him.

"I said by the end of the day and I've given you until the next."

"We didn't start this morning. I told you they take time. There's no way-"

"How many are done?"

Neither seemed willing to answer, that idiot of a techie the most nervous, rubbing his arm as if he'd brought a chill into the room. Spiro liked that kind of behavior though, as long as it didn't impede his own rise to the top.

"Sixteen," the Irish teen spoke up, as if he were so confident in himself. Those eyes bothered Jon more than he could say. "Barely. Sixteen is in the making. Even with help, it'll take more time."

"Time, time. Always asking for more of this or more of that. I've been very accommodating to you and you still don't seem to see that." So he'd be a few day behind now. It was worth it. Arty still wasn't his yet. He clapped his hands once more, gesturing Mr. Nero towards the boy. "Since I agreed to leave off your brother for now, I think you need to learn what happens when you don't make my deadlines."

There. There was fear in the boy's eyes now as he instinctively took a step back. That was one look that Jon enjoyed. There was nowhere for the teen to go though and he had him soon enough, Travis clearly displeased and upset with the situation.

"Wait…. He's telling the truth. I- I'm surprised we made this much. It's physically not possible to make them any faster, even with the blueprints."

"Hold your tongue, Mr. Duval. That sounded like you were telling me what to do."

And just like that he silenced the man, watching the teen drag his feet as he was pulled towards him. There was some defiance there, but that was to be expected. It seemed all the Fowls had a nasty habit of doing whatever they wanted and thinking they were right.

"Now, Arty. It's really not that bad. Think of it as a shock collar for when you do something bad."

And there it was, pure fear and the terror of any wild animal that knew death was upon it. He'd learn, soon, who the ruler around here was. _Those_ eyes Jon could get used to seeing.


	13. Storming the Gate

**Chapter 13: Storming the Gate  
**

Artemis was shaking. He couldn't help it and he'd been fighting to stop it for near an hour now. He curled up on the bed that was his for the time being, his clothes wet with his sweat and dirty from him not being able to change them. His lackluster appearance bothered him as much, if not more so, as the conditions he was kept in.

After this was over he was going to make sure to prohibit shock collars. He didn't own any dogs but he'd find a way. No creature deserved this kind of punishment.

There was food once again before him, food that obviously wasn't his brother's this time and, if anything, less than what he had been given before. There was still a small carton of milk but the rest was a thin piece of chicken and four baby carrots. Even for his own meager body weight, that wasn't enough to get someone through a day and remain functional.

Considering he hadn't eaten before, and was too sick to now, it didn't look like that was going to be possible no matter how much he was given in any case.

Lightly rubbing his wrists where the metal had burned him, eyes dull with the fight to stay conscious, he spoke to himself. He had to revise his plans a bit. He had to get Beckett out first.

He could also change his plans to free himself first and that thought was looking more and more promising but he needed to get his brother. If he messed up, if things went wrong, his brother could still be used against him.

What was the point of escaping if his hands were still metaphorically tied? That was only if he could start the preemptive escape to begin with. Being blind to the world was difficult and he found himself coughing, his body too weak to keep him sitting so he laid down, falling silent and letting his plans rest as they were. He needed time to think, and at this point, more rest. He was going to be of no use to anyone if he was incapacitated before he was able to so much as get out of bed.

…

…

Holly spoke with Foaly a bit more, finding out further information about the area they were in and that bug he'd been talking about. It was only after an hour of guesswork and a sudden thought from the centaur that they realized they could have been all wrong about this.

She heard typing on the other side of the headset as she sat in a new van that Butler had gotten to replace the old one. It was too noticeable with a missing tire, and it seemed that driving on the rim had messed it up enough that he hadn't been able to replace it.

"It's just a guess but… we may be right. The best I can say is try, but if they're attempting to stop you now, there's no way you'll get far enough before they notice what you're doing."

The copy of the ground that his computers had been reading, the one that was a duplicate of the terrain below it… wasn't. It could be a copy of the terrain _above_ it. Whatever was being hidden, it might be buried even further than that though. That, or this was some elaborate scheme taken way too far. She wouldn't have put it past Artemis, so she wasn't going to put it past Jon Spiro.

"I say we start digging then. I'll talk to you later Foaly. Thanks."

"Wait, Holly. Be careful. You might have your magic back now but a bullet with no back up will-"

"I'll be fine. I always am." _More or less_. "We have to get to work. I'm sure they've been missing me down there and I need to help get Artemis back if there's a chance."

"You have no idea. None. If it weren't for anyone but me being able to operate my equipment, I'm sure you'd be getting an earful by now."

"Thanks for covering for me," Holly spoke, her words true. Foaly had always been there for her, even when she hadn't asked him to be.

"No problem. Once you get a hookup inside, if there is an inside, I can help you a lot more. Right now I'm pretty useless."

"You're not useless. We wouldn't have been able to find this place – maybe find this place – if it weren't for your radars. Now enough with the sentimental stuff. I'll contact you once we get more information."

"Roger that," the centaur said as he stopped communication with her. This was going to be hard. None of them were really able to do much and he himself was even more useless. If it weren't for the fact that the people owed Artemis –_ and he wouldn't admit it was because Artemis was a friend_ – he would have already admitted this was a lost cause. He hoped Holly found something.

…

Digging wasn't Holly's strong suit. It wasn't because she was a girl and wasn't capable of it. She was smaller. Size mattered a lot when it came to picking up a shovel. She didn't even try, letting Butler get her started a few feet. It didn't' take the big man long. She helped it along after that, a few gun blasts loosening the dirt and throwing it every which way. They took turns like that, though as they got deeper and deeper, Holly was beginning to think they'd need some real mining machinery.

"If only I could contact Mulch." The dwarven thief would make this much easier but last she'd gotten any word from him he was in Acapulco, likely scamming some poor sucker out of their condo. Why someone who hated the sun so much was in that kind of place, she wasn't sure. He was too much of a people person, even if he wouldn't admit it.

"I don't think you could even if you wanted to." Butler threw some more dirt over his shoulder, the hole deeper than his height now. He was having to dig out more to fit his frame as he progressed.

Holly shook her head. "After I went back to Recon he took off like a Goblin asked to take a math quiz. I only hear about him through what he's been up to, when it reaches us."

Butler kind of missed their hairy little friend. It had been some time since they'd seen him but he figured he was doing what he loved. Out of all the new fairy folk they had met over the years, he was the one that Artemis was easily able to contact. The direct line to Holly, now that he thought of it, was Artemis's alone as well.

Maybe if they could get back to the manor and figure out where Artemis had put the communication device, they'd be able to contact him. He was just too far though, even if they could. It also meant that they would have to cross the ocean, since Mulch couldn't fly and he wasn't sure if Holly could manage that long without rest. "Never mind. Here." Butler jumped out of the hole, making room for Holly to blast away.

Taking the cue, Holly moved in, dislodging more dirt. She stepped back as Butler made his way inside and thought to herself. So many 'what ifs'. If only she had some sign, some little indication where Artemis was, if he was okay.

She was also very interested in who was trying to either take them, or their enemies, out of the picture, as well as wondering where Myles had gotten to. There was no way the boy would have friends here. No one, in fact, should know him here.

A few hours passed before Butler came out of the hole, his suit dirty and discolored by sweat and soot. He laid the shovel down with a heavy breath. "I'm getting too old for this. Come on. We should get something to eat."

Holly nodded in agreement though mudmen's food was never very appetizing. The best thing she'd had since she'd gotten here was that sandwich back at Fowl Manor.

Butler got up, stretching. "Once we're back, let's see about you being able to blow through cement again." He pointed down the hole. "There's more."

Holly peeked down, seeing where the dirt gave way and there were little speckles of white to show where cement now stood. "Sure thing. Foaly." Holly spoke back into her headset, closing the lid to block out the light so she could see what Foaly saw as she turned her cam set down. "That showing up at all on your readings now?"

Some more typing was heard before a "No, not at all. I think that's a good sign though. Someone was trying to take us for idiots. That, or this is one elaborate decoy."

Holly had revenge on her mind, just as much as Spiro must have. It was enough to fuel her. She happily accepted the food that Butler had brought once they were inside the vehicle once more, the taste better when she thought of what they could accomplish after they were finished. It was brute force versus tactics now. She hoped that they came out on top.

Going back to the hole with little conversation between the two of them, Holly set the Neutrino on the highest setting it had, enough to melt skin and bones together, as well as blast through metal in seconds. Concrete would take a while, but she could see the heated beam already taking chunks away from it.

"I'm not sure how long this'll take me because I don't know how deep it is. Keep a look out for me." Holly didn't turn her attention away from her work but she could feel Butler nod almost as if she had looked towards him. To have a group of people come shooting at them before they were this close was one thing, but there had been no guard when they returned. Even now, Holly was sure there was no one in the surrounding areas watching them. Why give up? Why try so hard to get rid of them and just leave it at that when they failed?

It was strange, too strange for her liking. This felt like a set up.

Holly had to keep the steam off her helmet after a half an hour of blasting away at the hardened rock. She'd gone at least four or five feet and was still going. Her blaster may not have a battery life anymore but the blasting away was making the air around her hot. Butler needed to switch off with her to get the dirt out of the way and she didn't want to boil the guy alive, so she switched off with him.

"I didn't think it would be this deep. It's going to take at least an hour to fully charge and I'm not going in there with a depleted weapon."

Butler had been watching but once Holly stopped, he turned his attention back to her to see the progress that had been made. He wouldn't want his backup going in without any force to wield either. "It's fine." It wasn't. Who knew if Artemis was really down there and they weren't just wasting a bunch of time, energy, and resources. "I'm going to go into town and pick up an explosive while you keep watch."

Holly lifted the visor on her helmet and met his eye. "You're just going to blow the place up?"

Butler nodded, though it didn't seem he was fond of the idea. "With the groundwork you made, it should be enough to break through whatever's left. They couldn't have made the ceiling that thick or it would be hard to support it without building much farther out and hoping there isn't much subsidence in the ground." It was faster this way, and they couldn't be stopped this way. If there were people below, they might die, but that was a risk he was willing to take. Artemis had been gone far too long now, and without any word from him, Butler had to admit, he was starting to fear the worst.

"Fine. Be back in an hour. We'll go in, guns blazing, and hope that we didn't just make one huge mistake."

…

…

Artemis was in the lab again, feeling much better and working out the insect when the place shook. He had been expecting _something_ but when most of the research he'd been flipping through was on the floor and he found himself in the same position, the insect still clutched in his hand and his head hurting, he wished that it had been something subtler.

Travis came over to him and helped him up. He'd been more or less avoiding the teen, letting him do all the research necessary and getting a compilation of his own notes in order to hand him, but shock had stirred him to act.

"What was that? Do you think it was an earthquake?"

Hardly, the place would have caved in, Artemis thought to himself. He accepted his help and got off the floor, slipping the beetle into his pocket. It was functional but it wouldn't move without him giving it an objective, and it looked like he was about to be taken away from the computer, if the explosion hadn't already knocked them offline.

"I highly doubt it was. It's been a week. That's longer than I thought it would have taken." Artemis fixed his clothes, hoping he could make himself look as presentable as possible. "Travis, you are about to meet some close friends of mine. If I tell you to do something I would appreciate it being done, and in as timely a manner as possible."

Travis stared at him blankly but Artemis didn't need to get him to understand. This is where things were going to be tricky and he needed pinpoint timing to get them done. The bodyguard was going to be the hardest obstacle, but hopefully things would work out in his favor. He did not like relying on luck so much but, in this case, he would take the chance. Holly arriving shortly would tip those scales a bit more in his favor.

Jon walked in, as if everything was fine. Artemis portrayed the same level of calm, if not a bit less poise due to a lack of rest and a decent meal.

"Arty, I think we're missing part of the ceiling in the lounge. It would be in your best interest to stay where you are and continue the work. I'm sure the guards can handle any problems the incident may have caused."

Artemis saw a glint of steel near Spiro's front pocket. He smiled at it. It was plainly obvious the man was trying to show off his power. "A gun? And here I thought you would have come up with some brilliant way to keep me here. So how many were there? Two, three? Your guards, of course, should be able to handle Butler and any associates he may have brought with. Is he what made you come down here? To hide?"

Spiro tensed, a huff escaping his mouth as he drew back a step and his large, overly jeweled hands slipped inside his pockets. "Hardly. I need to make sure my little lab rats aren't getting side tracked on their way to the prize. I've given you long enough, after all. Once this problem, this _small_ problem, is dealt with, we can see about checking up on your brother."

"You underestimate me." Artemis took a step forward, getting around the tables, stools and cabinets to stand a few meters from Spiro. "What if I decided that I didn't care what became of my brother anymore? What would you do then?"

"Well," Spiro said as he revealed his hand only to draw out the gun and point it at the teen that stood nearly a foot shorter than him. "I'd have to get a new lab rat."

"You and me both know you wouldn't do that. It wouldn't be beating me. You may have dealt with other people in the past like that, but not me. You mock my intelligence by even suggesting it. If you had really wanted to kill me, you would have done it when you shot me outside the manor. No. I beat you and you want to have a victory over me. Let me tell you right now Jon, you have not won. I am still standing, as is my house and my fortune. You, I'm afraid, will lose this game as well."

Spiro smirked, grit and steel painting its way across features that hadn't held innocent thoughts in a long time. "Well just see about that, Arty. We'll just see."


End file.
